This month has seen increasing speculation take place as to whether William Hill can launch a successful takeover bid for 888 Holdings. This was an ambitious attempt which could have seen an interesting shift in the terrain of the online poker world.
The bid that was tabled by William Hill for 888 Holdings was been reported as being for £720 million, for a company which has been in operation since 1997. Shares in 888 Holdings saw a significant rise as rumours of the William Hill takeover bid circulated. However, since the collapse of negotiations, share prices have endured something of a slump.
Despite some shareholders appearing to be satisfied with the offer, one of the largest, the Shaked family, rejected the deal. They maintain that the company worth far exceeds the figure offered. As a result the acquisition attempt failed. Sceptics have suggested that the failure of this acquisition was always highly probable, with certain shareholders having such a differing of opinion when it comes to valuation.
Both companies maintain that they are in very good health, which you would expect them to say, but clearly this takeover would have been a positive move for the companies had it reached fruition. If the takeover had taken place, one would assume that they would merge resources and player pools, helping both companies to grow stronger in difficult times for the online gaming sector.
One only has to look at the success of the Rational Group, who own Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker. In fact, the Rational Group was only recently taken over itself, for a huge $4.9 billion.
The takeover of the Group was followed by a number of changes which did not please its players at PokerStars and Full Tilt. Poker players protested on popular poker forums regarding the changes, and some loyal players posted led to mutinous words from their loyal player base on popular poker forums.
Perhaps if the time is ever going to be right for smaller competitors to merge, and then attempt to loosen the stranglehold which the Rational Group has over this industry, it would be now.