Peerless Media Wins Deal for World Poker Tour

The winner is Peerless Media in the bidding war for W P T Enterprises the owner of the money making World Poker Tour franchise. Most assets were sold to Peerless Media which is a subsidiary of the online gambling mega company PartyGaming. The reported sum is said to be $12.3 million. The shareholders were loyal to PartyGaming even after a very good offering was brought to the bargaining table by Mandalay Media, the large entertainment company. The last minute proposition would have included $5 million dollars worth of stock in Mandalay Media, $28.5 million in cash, and three years worth of WPTE revenue said to be in excess of $3 million over three years. In total the deal was reported to have a net estimated value of $36.5 million. It must have been a very interesting board meeting to decide the WPTE fate. The Mandalay proposal was obviously not what the shareholders were looking for though as the decision to sell to Peerless Media was approved 85 percent for and only 15 percent against. The aggressive approach by Mandalay may have put shareholders in a defensive mood as they determined that the Mandalay deal was not a "Superior Proposal"  

Mandalay's share offering was estimated at $1.77 per share which was noted as being 61 percent higher than the Peerless offer. That was at the time 28 percent better than the then current stock market value. The final arrangements for the take over by Peerless Media is expected to take place sometime before December.