Sources close to Full Tilt tell Subject: Poker that the acquisition agreement between Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) and Full Tilt contains a clause requiring that an outside independent entity be appointed to protect the current and future assets of the poker site pending its final sale.
GBT intends to appoint a chief restructuring officer (CRO) who will, in effect, replace the current board of directors of Full Tilt Poker. Among the responsibilities of this newly created post will be to protect all assets of FTP and related companies while the Groupe continues to negotiate the potential acquisition of Full Tilt with the various parties involved. To accomplish this, the CRO would, in effect, obtain final say over any and all financial and managerial decisions of the company, except for payment of mandatory obligations, such as employee salaries.
There is also a clearly stated mandate that no dividends or disbursements be made to any shareholder during this interim time period.
Sources tell Subject: Poker that GBT is still interviewing candidates for the new position. The final decision for hiring the CRO rests solely with GBT and there is no appeal process available to current ownership.
As we previously reported, the ratification of the agreement itself requires the approval of owners representing two thirds of the shares of Tiltware. The hiring of the CRO, as a part of this agreement, would be subject to that same vote. Sources tell Subject: Poker that such votes are being called immediately, with a final tally due any day.
Subject: Poker will continue to follow this story as it progresses.
Edited on 10/7/2011 12:25 PM EDT: Fixed a minor typo.
I hope the new management stops all the bad beats as well that’s another reason why we hated full tilt poker!
Stop the bad beats and kill the Poker.
If you are playing a 95%x5%, there will be times you are going to lose, accept this or stop playing lol
allow equity chopping just like they allow running it twice.
that being said id be against allowing equity chopping and i never run it twice.
How many shareholders do they have? Don’t the big 3 own like 40% of the shares?
Translation: If we buy your company, big Jim here is going to watch over you to make sure you don’t steal any of our shit before you hand over the keys.
What does “protect the assets of FTP and related companies” mean functionally?
What’s the fear driving this requirement?
Why would any investor purchase this business? You could (for a fraction of the cost) start up your own poker site with fresh ideas and capital to spend the way you see fit. Bad idea as far as an investment.
Exactly. Most of the time when you see this kind of behavior (and its really common in troubled companies) the “buyer” is just trying to get a head start and extra info before the bankruptcy, especially if they are able to do DIP financing. Ive done many billions of dollars of restructurings, and the odds are this is all noise and we are heading to the bankruptcy courts to figure it out.
the WSOP’s from 2004-2010 will go forward in history and reruns with the full tilt logos plastered all over everyone. the brand has invested so heavily in advertising they’re as synonymous with online poker as burton is with snowboards.
There’s a million poker sites, most of them are worthless. They can come into the market as the 2nd or 3rd biggest player right now, good luck starting from scratch and getting there.
yea, this. I lol when some people says ‘it would be more profitable to start up a new site with this money’. thanks for following the FT saga Diamond.
It would. The numbers do not lie.
You’re right, they don’t. The number of people who play online and are oblivious to all these goings on are huge; the number of people who play online and follow the postings on this site and 2+2 is relatively small. The brand really isn’t as tainted as most posters think it is.
The brand, the software, and the I.P. are worth a fortune. Without a deal with the D.O.J., the I.P. rights would eventually go to someone else. Make the deal and you get the benefit of all previous advertising, as screaminasian pointed out.
Player database , already known worldwide, amazing software technology… not all people will withdraw their entire BK. Fulltilt will grow back and big , especially if they keep the rakeback in place.
Not a chance. 80% of full tilts data base was us players. The market cap with what is left is devastated.
Last I heard much > 50% of their player pool was outside U.S. The guys are good at turning around distressed companies not starting new ones. I’m guessing they are privy to much more inside info then we are and they think this is a good idea so….
Wilks, you don`t have a clue of what you`re talking about.
I am European so I have actually seen the post black Friday player numbers and it was still huge.
Shut up Wilk! You clearly make a comment like that with not very much money on FTP.
Terminal Poker did exactly that, with a version of Rush Poker and everything. Have you seen their traffic? I hear there was one day when they had almost 70 players. Right now there’s 30 players in the .02-.05 (Euros) Hold’em game.
Not quite seeing the “start up your own poker site” as being the road to the gold mine that so many others seem to….
Probably because Full Tilt, according to experts, owns the best online poker software. Additionally, the site is fullly operational. Back in the days, rumor has it that the site would generate more than a a million dollars a day.
With Ivey, Antonius, Hansen and Durrr, to name a few, image and integrity still “intact” and considering these are the BIGGEST name in poker (in terms of media exposure)alongside Isildur who is by the way looking for a new sponshorship deal, an attempt to redress Full Tilt is far from a foolish idea. If full Tilt re-emerge, within two years the site will resume its primary activity. A money-making monster.
Well, that’s my opinion.
When can I interview?
Hope they secure the t shirts, still owed one !
It sounds to me like a twice convicted felon is trying to buy FT from a group of soon to be convicted felons. The company that is being bought and sold has the funds to pay about 16 cents on the dollar to creditors. I know the software has some value, but I don’t understand the value of the brand. I for one would never play on FT again. I would like my money back, though, but I’m not seeing this as a positve step.
Confused here. I thought US feds/DoJ has FTP assets held frozen pending investigation and until the cases against the owners lifted. There is also the issue of paying back the players. Have all these issues been resolved already? How can a sale be possible? Tell me what I am missing.
The DOJ has some of the assets in the U.S. held. They have nothing outside the U.S., but do have court orders in place barring some of the principals from accessing assets outside of the U.S., but those orders only have any real value if those principals intend to continue living in the U.S. (other than in prison). The value of the DOJ’s claims — assets, software, brand names, etc. — on anything outside the U.S. is debatable.
All the other issues need to be resolved as part of the deal.
some value has also having some thousands accounts with money already deposited on your poker site.
Make that “thousands” minus one. As soon as I can, if I can, I’m takin my money and runnin. FT has no goodwill left. I’d take 20 cents on the dollar today if I could get it.
You can get 20 cents on the dollar now fool. You can get about 60 cents on the dollar.
Where?
I would snap call 60 cents
I’ll take it. How much do you have???