Empire Online receives Takeover Bid from Secret Party
16 September 2005

Empire Online, the company that operates a variety of great online casinos and poker rooms including Noble Poker and Empire Poker, recently announced that it has received a huge takeover bid from a secret party by the acquisition of all its outstanding assets at £270 for each share.

Although many other online casino companies are beginning to float on the London AIM stock market, Empire Online, founded in 1997 by Noam Lanir, was the first organization to float on the market back in June. Since then they have obtained Nobel Poker and a number of online casino from the Club Dice organization.

The negotiations that were set for the takeover were still in its early stages when the company was forced to publicize the bid because of a sudden hike in its share prices, explained a spokesperson from Empire Online. The company was able to close at £264 after it went up to £274. This takeover bid is a prime example of how online gaming and poker stocks are a popular commodity today.

In fact many other online gaming businesses are considering jumping on the Empire Online bandwagon and floating on the stock market. One of these companies is Cassava Enterprise, which is set to float next month (Cassava Enterprise is the owner of Casino on Net). Other companies rumored to also take part in a float include Ultimate Bet Poker, PokerRoom.com and PokerStars.

However as far as the undisclosed takeover bid is concerned, no one knows for certain who the company behind it is; nevertheless there are speculations. One such speculation is that Sportingbet, the operator of Paradies Poker, could be the company involved in the takeover bid. If that is true, this could potentially cause a bidding war for Empire’s assets between Sportingbet and Partygaming. Yet, on the other hand, Partygaming is also rumored to be one of the possible sources behind the bid, as Partygaming happens to be one of the largest online gaming organizations and recently floated shortly after Empire Online.

Regardless who the undisclosed party turns out to be, the discovery should make for an interesting outcome in the online gaming industry.