37 replies to this topic

[FCP Bob]

There's a lot of buzz today that Poker Stars is in the process of purchasing Full Tilt.The only information that I have are things that I've read online so I have no clue if it's true or not and if it is true what it means for players.Alexandre Dreyfus is the CEO of Chillipoker and he tweeted the following about 30 minutes agohttps://twitter.com/...#!/alex_dreyfusAlexandre Dreyfus‏@alex_dreyfusPokerstars buys FullTilt for a consideration of $750m, including settlement with DOJ and full balances of players (330m). I'm impressed.

[HighwayStar]

From igamingfrance"Just spoken to Laurent Tapie re Stars-FTP buyout, no comment, he'll put out a release later today..."https://twitter.com/...799423170150402A lot of news articles are just citing the thread developing in NVG on 2p2 which is exploding: http://forumserver.t...es-ftp-1197424/

[FCP Bob]

https://twitter.com/...!/igamingFranceigaming France‏@igamingFranceLaurent Tapie confirms deal is off for FTP buyout, insinuates external sabotage over DOJ negociations. More to follow... #pokerstars

[FCP Bob]

Brian Balsbaugh‏@BalsbaughFWIW, an FTP source at the highest level told me all along that when the time came, Tapie wouldn't write the check

[Suited_Up]

[FCP Bob]

Brian Balsbaugh‏@BalsbaughIf the $750m "all in" figure is correct, I know of 3 vastly more lucrative offers the FTP Board of Directors passed on last summerBrian Balsbaugh‏@BalsbaughIt's hard to explain the level of corporate hatred btwn PS & FTP. PS w power/control over major FTP shareholders is their worst nightmare

[FCP Bob]

http://www.gaming-aw...S/archives/8374Statement from the Tapie GroupGroupe Bernard Tapie regrets to announce that, after seven months of intensive work, our efforts to obtain final approval of the United States Department of Justice of the agreement to acquire the assets of Full Tilt Poker have ended without success. Ultimately, the deal failed due to two major issues. The parties could not agree on a plan for repayment of ROW players. GBT proposed a plan that would have resulted in immediate reinstatement of all ROW player balances, with a right to withdraw those funds over time, based on the size of the player balance and the extent of the player’s playing activity on the re-launched site. All players would have been permitted complete withdrawal of their balances, regardless of whether they played on the site, by a date certain, and 94.9% of ROW players would have been fully repaid on day 1. DOJ ultimately insisted on full repayment with right of withdrawal within 90 days for all players– a surprise demand made in the 11th hour, after months of good-faith negotiations by GBT. The legal complications surrounding the deal – specifically, questions surrounding the legality of the forfeiture under non-US laws – also proved unresolvable. All of the key assets of the FTP companies reside outside of the United States. A non-US court well might regard the purported forfeiture as a “fraudulent transaction” and declare it invalid or deem the acquirer of the assets responsible for all of those creditor obligations. Given the $80 million purchase price, and the substantial amount of cash needed to relaunch FTP, those issues ultimately proved too substantial to overcome. GBT is very conscious of the hopes it has created – among FTP employees that they will retain their jobs, among FTP players that they will recover their balances, and among the entire poker community that the world’s finest poker platform will be relaunched and bring a needed added element of competition to a world market that today is fully dominated by a single operator. GBT cannot accept the end of those hopes. For that reason, unless a concrete and legally viable solution is found in the very coming days to save the employees and repay the players of FTP, we will move to our own plan of action. We understand from press reports that the DOJ may have entered into an agreement with PokerStars pursuant to which PokerStars will acquire the FTP assets.
If accurate, we can only assume that PokerStars determined that it was willing to accept these legal and financial risks in order to resolve its own legal situation with DOJ.

If a PokerStars acquisition of FTP means that all FTP players will be fully repaid immediately, we are very happy for the players, as their final and full repayment has always been our priority. We only regret that such a deal would signal further consolidation of a poker market already dominated by a single player – an outcome that may raise antitrust concerns and that, in the long run, is probably not good for players and for the whole online poker industry.”

[FARGOpokerND]

ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseplease happen...daddy wants his money back before WSOP

[SuitedAces21]

does this mean anything towards u.s. players playing again?

[FCP Bob]

SuitedAces21, on Tuesday, April 24th, 2012, 1:34 PM, said:

does this mean anything towards u.s. players playing again?

In the short term for Americans it would mean that they are likely to get their Full Tilt money back sooner rather than later.

[Mercury69]

"GBT is very conscious of the hopes it has created – among FTP employees that they will retain their jobs, among FTP players that they will recover their balances, and among the entire poker community that the world’s finest poker platform will be relaunched and bring a needed added element of competition to a world market that today is fully dominated by a single operator."Isn't this a little disingenuous? If GBT buys FT and already owns PS, where on earth is the "competition"? It would still be a single operator, but under two well known names.

[FCP Bob]

Mercury69, on Tuesday, April 24th, 2012, 1:43 PM, said:

"GBT is very conscious of the hopes it has created – among FTP employees that they will retain their jobs, among FTP players that they will recover their balances, and among the entire poker community that the world’s finest poker platform will be relaunched and bring a needed added element of competition to a world market that today is fully dominated by a single operator."Isn't this a little disingenuous? If GBT buys FT and already owns PS, where on earth is the "competition"? It would still be a single operator, but under two well known names.

GBT doesn't own Poker Stars

[FCP Bob]

http://www.pokerstar...men-093438.htmlby Eric Hollreiser on April 24, 2012 12:39 PM We've had a lot of enquiries and there's lots of speculation on the forums, so I wanted to address the PokerStars chatter. As you know, PokerStars is in settlement discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice. As such settlement discussions are always confidential, we are unable to comment on rumors. As soon as we have information to share publicly we will do so.* * * *Eric Hollreiser is Head of Corporate Communications for PokerStars

[TrueAce13]

LETS GOOOOOO

[GOCUBSGO]

Seems like a step in the right direction for both Pokerstars and poker in the US as a whole.

[FCP Bob]

Brian Balsbaugh‏@BalsbaughI've been told GBT pushed & pushed DOJ for better terms over the past several months until DOJ reached its breaking point

[Cruz]

SuitedAces21, on Tuesday, April 24th, 2012, 9:34 AM, said:

does this mean anything towards u.s. players playing again?

This wouldn't have a direct effect on allowing PS in the US again but if PokerStars returns the money to Fulltilt players, PokerStars will achieve a respect in the poker world that no government regulated site could ever hope to achieve. That's got to count for something.

[Balloon guy]

FCP Bob, on Tuesday, April 24th, 2012, 2:10 PM, said:

Brian Balsbaugh‏@BalsbaughI've been told GBT pushed & pushed DOJ for better terms over the past several months until DOJ reached its breaking point

Pretty sure the DOJ doesn't have a 'breaking point' unless you mean the point where they just declare "National Security" and throw someone in Gitmo...

[FCP Bob]

If this article's information is accurate it would have taken a lot of play and fresh deposits for players to get their Full Tilt balance from the new Full Tilt if the Tapie Group had have bought Tilt.The GBT Repayment Plan, Fact vs Fiction

[Cruz]

FCP Bob, on Tuesday, April 24th, 2012, 4:18 PM, said:

If this article's information is accurate it would have taken a lot of play and fresh deposits for players to get their Full Tilt balance from the new Full Tilt if the Tapie Group had have bought Tilt.The GBT Repayment Plan, Fact vs Fiction

Wow. It looks like Tapie had planned on using some pretty shady means of repaying players. Their initial plan sounds like they were only going to repay much of the money in the form of rakeback. I don't think they ever had the intention or means of paying back all players. This latest turn of events, if true, is very fortunate for FT players.