New Mystery Bidder Emerges For World Poker Tour Assets

Published on August 20th, 2009 5:00 am EST

A few weeks ago, WPT Enterprises Inc., the parent company of the World Poker Tour, announced that they were selling all of their assets (except for cash, investments and "certain excluded assets") to Gamynia Ltd. for just over $9 million dollars.

Gamynia Ltd. had announced that they were planning on partnering with Hardway Investments to "exploit and develop the WPT brands with a goal of maximizing future revenue opportunities". Hardway Investments, according to their web site, are producers of casino and poker brands that include Titan Poker and Europa Casino.

As part of the proposed deal, WPTE was set to receive 4% of future gaming revenues and 5% of future sponsorship and non-gaming revenues going forward.

WPTE was not planning on distributing the cash to shareholders - rather, they were planning on developing or acquiring a "non-poker related business".

Anyways, in a Form 8-K that was filed in late July that included the particulars of the deal, it was mentioned that WPTE could walk away from the deal if the Company's Board of Directors decided to "accept an acquisition proposal it deems superior to the Transaction".

If the WPTE did in fact walk away from the deal, then they would have to pay a $1 million dollar termination fee, according to the filing.

Well, according to a Form 8-K that was filed on Tuesday, the Board of Directors of WPT Enterprises, Inc. have received an "alternative acquisition proposal" and is "following the process required by the Purchase Agreement".

Details of the "alternative acquisition proposal" have not been made public as of yet. There is no word as to who is making the bid, or how much the bid is. It would have to be a substantial improvement over Gamynia's bid though, due to the fact that WPTE would need to pay a $1 million dollar termination fee in order to walk away from the deal.

We will hopefully learn the identity of this new mystery company in a few weeks.

Who would have figured that the World Poker Tour, which was seemingly on its last legs just a few months ago, would be the subject of a bidding war?

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Filed Under: Other Poker News