888 concedes defeat in bwin.party battle

eGR NA understands operator will not increase bid for bwin.party after GVC awarded preferred bidder status

888 will not table an increased offer in a bid to snatch bwin.party from GVC’s grasp after the bwin board last night recommended GVC’s 130p offer to acquire the firm, eGR North America understands. [private]

Sources close to the negotiations said 888’s management had become frustrated with the lengthy acquisition process, and believed GVC had overvalued bwin.party.

“The 888 board has concluded that, as a result of its own extensive due diligence on bwin.party, it cannot see sufficient value in bwin.party to warrant a revision to its offer. Consequently, 888 confirms that it is no longer in discussions regarding the acquisition of bwin.party,” 888 said in a statement. 

888 tabled a revised proposal – believed to be around 115p per share and an increase of 10p per share on its earlier offer – to acquire bwin.party in response to bwin.party preparing to announce GVC as its preferred bidder last weekend.

However despite upping its offer once already, 888 is understood to be unwilling to go one step further and match or exceed the 130p valuation from GVC.

GVC has also long claimed it can achieve far greater synergies and cost savings than 888, should it acquire bwin.party.

The news comes just one day after 888 chief operating officer Itai Frieberger warned bwin.party not to make a mistake and said the firm faced a “final chance” to pick the right bid.

Frieberger said 888’s offer was “a much better option than GVC” in the long-term and would be able to create significantly more value.

“888 is bigger and more diversified than GVC, operating in more territories with a business that is much more similar to bwin.party,” he told eGR NA.