Online Poker Room Pokerstars For Sale
Published: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 Online-Casinos.com
ONLINE POKER ROOM POKERSTARS FOR SALE
Israeli owners appoint top investment bank to advise on sale or IPO
The world's second largest online poker ROOM company, PokerStars is up for sale
or a public listing by the Israeli Scheinberg family.
Having moved their company to the Isle of Man jurisdiction recently, the Scheinbergs
have engaged a leading City bank, NM Rothschild to sell or launch an IPO in London
for Poker Stars...and they're looking at a price tag of over $2 billion (GBP 1.2
million)
PokerStars is the second-biggest virtual poker operator after PartyGaming,
the company behind the PartyPoker website, whose four owners pocketed about
GBP 1 billion last summer after floating it on the London Stock Exchange with
a value of GBP 4.64 billion.
Isai Scheinberg founded Poker Stars and he and his family are believed to hold
around 75 percent of the company, with his employees owning most of the other
25 percent. He comes from a technical background and was previously a programmer
with IBM.
Israeli business media reports indicate that Scheinberg worked for IBM’s
Canadian subsidiary and that he and his family reside in that country. He has
two sons, who manage the company with him.
Scheinberg founded PokerStars in 1999, and the company now has a turnover of
$150-200 million a year, with a high net profit margin, amounting to almost
half its revenue.
Although a flotation for PokerStars, probably in the second half of 2006, is
a possibility, City analysts believe the huge growth in internet gambling is
likely to make PokerStars attractive to both virtual and physical rivals. At
a recent conference Lenny Barshack the head of Tribeca Tables, a poker
software developer produced statistics showing that online poker revenues reached
US $3 billion in 2005.
Analysts postulate that one possible merger partner could be 888 Holdings,
which in September followed in the footsteps of PartyGaming in floating on the
London Stock Exchange with a value of almost GBP 600 million. Like PokerStars,
888 is controlled by Israeli interests, the Shaked and Ben Yitzhak families.
Some City analysts believe that the sale of PokerStars may also attract interest
from traditional gambling companies, such as Rank Group and William
Hill, keen to boost their presence in the online sector.
