{"id":276737,"date":"2023-06-08T15:29:27","date_gmt":"2023-06-08T20:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=276737"},"modified":"2023-06-09T11:26:55","modified_gmt":"2023-06-09T16:26:55","slug":"sciplay-board-forms-committee-to-consider-lnw-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sciplay-board-forms-committee-to-consider-lnw-offer\/","title":{"rendered":"SciPlay Board Forms Committee to Evaluate Light & Wonder Takeover Bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

SciPlay (NASDAQ: SCPL) announced Thursday that its board of directors has formed a special committee to consider Light & Wonder\u2019s (NASDAQ: LNW) recently revealed offer. The bid seeks to\u00a0 acquire the 17% of the social casino developer it doesn\u2019t already own.<\/p>\n

\"SciPlay\"
SciPlay employees at the Nasdaq market site. The company’s board formed a special committee to evaluate Light & Wonder’s takeover offer. (Image: Investor Prism)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last month, Light & Wonder offered $422 million in cash, or $20 a share<\/a>, for that 17% slice of SciPlay. That values the target at a 28.5% premium to its last closing price before the bid was publicly revealed.<\/p>\n

The Special Committee has been granted full authority to independently review and evaluate the non-binding proposal that the Board received from Light & Wonder,\u201d<\/strong> according to a SciPlay statement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The committee members are Gerald Cohen, April Henry, Michael Marchetti, and William Thompson, with Cohen and Henry acting as cochairs. Lazard will act as the committee\u2019s financial advisor, while Sullivan & Cromwell LLP was retained as legal counsel.<\/p>\n

Assessing Light & Wonder, SciPlay Ties<\/h2>\n

There are obvious ties between the two companies. Currently, Light & Wonder owns 83% of the equity and 98% of the voting interest in SciPlay, making it nearly impossible for the latter to consider a sale to another party. Formerly the social gaming division of Scientific Games<\/a>, SciPlay was spun off from that company in 2019.<\/p>\n

\n

However, the SciPlay board is mostly independent of Light & Wonder. Just one director, Toni Korsanos, holds board seats at both companies. As for the four members of the special committee tasked with evaluating the Light & Wonder takeover offer, none of those SciPlay directors have direct ties to the suitor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Of that quartet, only Marchetti has direct mobile gaming or social casino experience. He previously served as chief executive officer of Buffalo Studios, creator of the popular Bingo Blitz<\/em> social game. That company was eventually sold to Caesars Interactive, and that title is now controlled by mobile games developer Playtika (NASDAQ: PLTK).<\/a><\/p>\n

SciPlay cautioned investors there are no promises a deal will be reached. In fact, the two sides are less than two years removed from Light & Wonder attempting to bring SciPlay back in-house. Those talks ultimately fell apart.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere can be no assurance that any definitive offer will be made by Light & Wonder, that a definitive agreement will be executed relating to the Proposed Transaction, or that this or any other transaction will be approved or consummated,\u201d according to the statement.<\/p>\n

Deal Could Make Sense for SciPlay<\/h2>\n

Since the new offer was revealed on May 18, shares of SciPlay flirted with $20, but have not closed at that price.\u00a0 The stock closed at $19.35 on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Looking further out, some analysts believe a reunification with Light & Wonder makes sense for SciPlay. That’s because the former parent\u2019s stake in the social casino firm acts as an overhang that depresses its valuation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Additionally, with Light & Wonder controlling 98% of SciPlay\u2019s voting equity, the latter\u2019s options in terms of a sale are likely limited to its former parent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SciPlay (NASDAQ: SCPL) announced Thursday that its board of directors has formed a special committee to consider Light & Wonder\u2019s (NASDAQ: LNW) recently revealed offer. The bid seeks to\u00a0 acquire the 17% of the social casino developer it doesn\u2019t already own. Last month, Light & Wonder offered $422 million in cash, or $20 a share, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":208806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,32093,22988],"tags":[81903,81966,82927],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSciPlay Board Forms Committee To Consider LNW Offer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SciPlay board using special committee to evaluate Light & Wonder takeover bid.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sciplay-board-forms-committee-to-consider-lnw-offer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SciPlay Board Forms Committee To Consider LNW Offer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SciPlay board using special committee to evaluate Light & Wonder takeover bid.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sciplay-board-forms-committee-to-consider-lnw-offer\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-08T20:29:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-09T16:26:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/sciplay.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@etfgodfather\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sciplay-board-forms-committee-to-consider-lnw-offer\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sciplay-board-forms-committee-to-consider-lnw-offer\/\",\"name\":\"SciPlay Board Forms Committee To Consider LNW Offer\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sciplay-board-forms-committee-to-consider-lnw-offer\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sciplay-board-forms-committee-to-consider-lnw-offer\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/sciplay.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-08T20:29:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-09T16:26:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\"},\"description\":\"SciPlay board using special committee to evaluate Light & Wonder takeover bid.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sciplay-board-forms-committee-to-consider-lnw-offer\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sciplay-board-forms-committee-to-consider-lnw-offer\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sciplay-board-forms-committee-to-consider-lnw-offer\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/sciplay.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/sciplay.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"SciPlay employees at the Nasdaq market site. 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