{"id":41055,"date":"2016-10-18T16:00:07","date_gmt":"2016-10-18T23:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=41055"},"modified":"2016-10-18T11:30:44","modified_gmt":"2016-10-18T18:30:44","slug":"amaya-william-hill-merger-negotiations-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/amaya-william-hill-merger-negotiations-collapse\/","title":{"rendered":"Amaya and William Hill Merger Negotiations Collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n

\"Amaya
William Hill Chairman Gareth Davis said the premature leak of the merger talks between his company and Amaya helped to prevent the deal from happening. (Image: William Hill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The wheels came off a proposed merger between William Hill and Amaya today, as the UK bookmaker walked away from the deal following objections from its shareholders.<\/p>\n

On Friday Parvus Capital Management, the company\u2019s biggest shareholder, publicly criticized the proposal as a \u201cwaste of time\u201d and a \u201cvalue-destroying deal,\u201d and urged the board to concentrate on \u201cmaximizing value for William Hill owners by considering all alternative options available, including a sale of William Hill.”<\/p>\n

The criticism forced a wounded response from Amaya, which accused Parvus\u2019 assessment of inaccuracy.<\/p>\n

But Parvus co-founder Mads Eg Gensmann subsequently told Reuters that Amaya\u2019s core business of online poker was the least attractive segment within the sector and the proposed deal would weaken William Hill’s strategic position in the long term.<\/p>\n

He also cited concerns about the recent devaluation of the pound against the Canadian dollar since the Brexit vote.<\/p>\n

“Effectively, you’re buying an overvalued asset using an undervalued currency,” he said.<\/p>\n

Negotiations Had Been Ongoing \u201cfor Weeks\u201d<\/b><\/h2>\n

According to London\u2019s Financial Times, multiple sources close to the negotiations said the management of both companies had been in talks for weeks and had been \u201cconfident of completing a deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

But William Hill<\/a> chairman Gareth Davis said that the premature leak of the talks by Reuters on October 7 meant that shareholders were informed of the proposal before the due diligence process had been completed, which may have hastened the demise of the deal.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe general feeling [among shareholders] was a lack of appetite to pursue the discussion,\u201d said Davis. \u201cA lot of it is down to a lack of contemporary knowledge of Amaya. I don\u2019t think they have been great at communicating about their business.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Shareholder Revolt<\/b><\/h2>\n

Amaya<\/a> and William Hill had talked of a multi-billion-dollar \u201cmerger of equals\u201d to create \u201ca clear international leader across online sports betting, poker and casino,\u201d in a combination that was full of \u201csound industrial logic.\u201d But William Hill\u2019s shareholders disagreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter canvassing views from a number of William Hill’s major shareholders, the Board has decided that it will not pursue discussions with Amaya,\u201d the company said in an official statement. \u201cAccordingly, the Board has informed Amaya that it is withdrawing from discussions and wishes Amaya well for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Divyesh Gadhia, Chairman of Amaya, said: \u201cTogether with our financial advisors, we evaluated a wide range of strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value and have concluded that remaining an independent company is in the best interest of Amaya’s shareholders at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The wheels came off a proposed merger between William Hill and Amaya today, as the UK bookmaker walked away from the deal following objections from its shareholders. On Friday Parvus Capital Management, the company\u2019s biggest shareholder, publicly criticized the proposal as a \u201cwaste of time\u201d and a \u201cvalue-destroying deal,\u201d and urged the board to concentrate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":41056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,19],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAmaya and William Hill Merger Negotiations Collapse<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Amaya and William Hill merger talks break down as Hill\u2019s shareholders reject deal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Amaya and William Hill Merger Negotiations Collapse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Amaya and William Hill merger talks break down as Hill\u2019s shareholders reject deal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/amaya-william-hill-merger-negotiations-collapse\/\" \/>\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=\"2016-10-18T23:00:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-18T18:30:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/766bfc27f42a01c02df79a549db83f69904a21cf.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"468\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"247\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/amaya-william-hill-merger-negotiations-collapse\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/amaya-william-hill-merger-negotiations-collapse\/\",\"name\":\"Amaya and William Hill Merger Negotiations Collapse\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/amaya-william-hill-merger-negotiations-collapse\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/amaya-william-hill-merger-negotiations-collapse\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/766bfc27f42a01c02df79a549db83f69904a21cf.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-18T23:00:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-18T18:30:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Amaya and William Hill merger talks break down as Hill\u2019s shareholders reject deal\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/amaya-william-hill-merger-negotiations-collapse\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/amaya-william-hill-merger-negotiations-collapse\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/amaya-william-hill-merger-negotiations-collapse\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/766bfc27f42a01c02df79a549db83f69904a21cf.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/766bfc27f42a01c02df79a549db83f69904a21cf.jpg\",\"width\":468,\"height\":247,\"caption\":\"William Hill Chairman Gareth Davis said the premature leak of the merger talks between his company and Amaya helped to prevent the deal from happening. 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