William Hill rejects the joint takeover proposed by 888 and Rank Group, labeling it "opportunistic". Earlier last week, the board of William Hill (considered as one of the biggest bookmakers in Britain) has unanimously rejected the £3.16 billion ($4.2 bn) takeover bid from online operator 888 Holdings and casino giant Rank Group.
The offer, in cash and shares, was labeled "highly opportunis[...] Read more » William Hill rejects £3bn takeover bid by 888 and Rank
Joined: Mar '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 7371
The amount of money being talked about here seems insane to me. It goes to show that there is still a lot of money to be made in bookmaking. It will be interesting to see how this plays out
Joined: Feb '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 5712
Big money breeds big money. It's always interesting when competitors attempt to take over others . William hill is clearly not having any of it and have sent the joint bidder off with a flea in their ear. I don't suppose this is the last we will hear about this so keep your eyes peeled to see the next instalment .
Joined: Aug '10
Location: Germany
Age: 52 (M)
Posts: 2219
Yes, it was really intersting to see, what a big bookmaker do in this case. We see, not everything is possible and every bookmaker have a own limit for their operatings. Now we can wait for the next interesting step
Joined: May '08
Location: Germany
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 6786
One could expect the concentration in the gambling industry to continue, with further mergers. But this one would come a bit surprisingly. These would be two top dogs joining forces, surely forcing others to follow that path.
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
quite a complex deal- one company taking over another company and forming a new company which is formed with the sole intention of taking over another company... oh and some (not a very small) amount of what is offered is going to be financed by giving away shares of this newly formed company... complex and kinda fishy...
Posted by shokaku: One could expect the concentration in the gambling industry to continue, with further mergers. But this one would come a bit surprisingly. These would be two top dogs joining forces, surely forcing others to follow that path.
Something not right here. If both of are them having healty returns on their shares why do they need this? And if all of this will result in a hostile takeover then I doubt any of the big two will win with it at the end.
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
On big offer here. Huge i must say. That shows in what level some of the sites are in online world. I dont know about their goal here, no cluw who the second buyer is, but probably 888poker wants to go into the the "retail shops" business. There is still good money there.
Yeah, by all means I kinda like the WillHill website but they really not industry leaders when it comes to online stuff. They are 'just' followers there. The huge dough is in their UK retail network, but that alone deinitely not worth this much money.
William Hill is one of the biggest figure in the gambling industry so there is no reason to sell or share holdings or whatever as they are so powerful on the market along with bet365 IMO...
Joined: May '09
Location: Croatia
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 20416
such a big offer means that they worth a lot on market,so why to sell their business!that is lot of money,but now they have more reason not to sell and to try to be better and to take more players on their site!
Joined: Mar '14
Location: Japan
Age: 49 (M)
Posts: 8946
It is somewhat ironic that it was the Shaked family, 888 Holdings co-founder, who rejected William Hill's takeover bid of 888 back in early 2015. Let's see if there will be any direct and measurable effect on stock price of both companies.
Edited by Tony_MON7ANA (20 August 2016 @ 15:03 GMT)
Posted by Tony_MON7ANA: It is somewhat ironic that it was the Shaked family, 888 Holdings co-founder, who rejected William Hill's takeover bid of 888 back in early 2015. Let's see if there will be any direct and measurable effect on stock price of both companies.
Dunno, it seems to me this thing is really getting on personal levels for both sides and they should have avoid it 'cuz that is like business 101 of how not to operate something.
