Yesterday, PokerCollectif learned you that, according to a rumor making its way onto Internet, PokerStars would be (or would be in the process of) bought Full Tilt Poker, her biggest rival in recent years.
Although to date, no official source cannot confirm or deny this point, we have thought good to give you the latest information in this folder.
Even if Alexander Dreyfus from Chile Poker announced it as a new yesterday on his Twitter, because PokerStars has yet nothing confirmed, it remains difficult to believe beyond a reasonable doubt.
For this purpose, several people contacted branch at PokerStars for the latest news in this folder. "Is this a rumor or fact", asked several?
What PokerStars replied: "as you know, PS is currently in discussion with the DoJ. Insofar as these discussions are confidential, we are not able to comment on the rumors. As soon as we have info to share publicly, we do so".
From this quote, one can speculate. But it seems logical to say that if this information had been false, PokerStars would immediately announced it without tweezers. The fact that they must keep confidential information probably is a sign that happens something in PokerStars (namely the purchase of FTP).
Has also published an official statement by Laurent Tapie, the Director of the Bernard Tapie group, which confirmed the rumor that negotiations between his group and the DoJ have aborted.
According to the press release (published in English)
Translation:
"The Group Bernard Tapie has regrets to announce that after seven months of intensive work, our efforts to obtain the agreement of the DoJ in our approach to the acquisition of Full Tilt Poker have finished in failure. This result is mainly due to two causes.
The first is that the two parties are not granted on the question of the reimbursement of the American players.
The Group Bernard Tapie proposed a plan that would have resulted in the re-establishment of the players accounts, with a right to the withdrawal of the funds over time, based on the amount funds possessed by the player and its activity on the new game room. All players would thus have the possibility of withdrawing their entire bankroll on a given date, and 94.9% of the American players have been fully reimbursed for at the outset. The DoJ has insisted for a total refund with a right of withdrawal within 90 days for all players. A late surprise request after months of good faith on the part of the Bernard Tapie group discussions.
Regulatory, and complications in particular questions about the recognition of the deal with the DoJ by certain international authorities, proved to be insoluble.
All of the important assets of Full Tilt Poker are located outside the United States. A foreign court could very well consider the deal as a "fraudulent transaction" and declare it invalid or consider the purchaser as responsible for all the obligations of the company. Given the $ 80 million purchase price, and the large sum in liquidity necessary to relaunch the site, these problems proved too great to overcome.
The Group Bernard Tapie is aware of the hopes it has generated: with employees eager to keep their jobs, players wishing to recover their bankrolls and the community international poker who dreams of seeing the best relaunched online platform, thus providing some competition in a market now completely dominated by one operator. The Bernard Tapie group cannot accept the end of those hopes.
For this reason, unless a concrete and viable solution in the coming days to meet players and employees, we reactivate our action plan.
We understand, according to advertisements in the press, that the DoJ would be reached an agreement with PokerStars which would lead to the acquisition of Full Tilt by the operator. If these information are true, we can just imagine that PokerStars has accepted the conditions of the DoJ with regard to legal and financial issues outlined previously. From there, if the acquisition of Full Tilt by PokerStars means that all players will be immediately refunded, we are very pleased for the players, whose repayment was our priority.
"We just regret that such an agreement goes in the direction of a consolidation of a market already dominated by one operator, a situation that raises questions about the competitive and, in the long term, is probably not good for the players and the online poker industry."
We hope that these some information clarify you a little spirits in this case. "The big question or in fact, the two big remaining issues in this case are;"What is PokerStars actually bought Full Tilt Poker"and"If Yes, are well advanced in their approach"?
PokerCollectif will give you the answers to these questions as soon as the information will be of a public nature.
In the meantime, discuss this news on our forums: back on the rumor of acquisition of FTP by PokerStars
