Acquisition of FTP by GBT – Slow Progress
The acquisition of Full Tilt Poker by the Groupe Bernard Tapie is not yet a done deal. It does look like the online poker community breathed a sigh of relief a bit too soon following the news item published by CNN Money last Friday to the effect that the sale of FTP by GBT had been finalized. In fact, the news piece was quickly removed from the site and an updated version was posted accompanied by the following editor’s note:
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly indicated that all aspects of the deal for the sale of Full Tilt Poker to Groupe Bernard Tapie had been finalized, including an agreement between Full Tilt Poker and the U.S. Department of Justice. A final announcement is still pending.
The main issue it appears is that Full Tilt Poker has yet to comply with forfeiting all of its assets to the DoJ. The agreement between the US Department of Justice and Groupe Bernard Tapie is that the latter would purchase the assets of FTP from the former for the sum of $80 million. However, until FTP formally forfeits said assets, no purchase can actually take place.
This is an additional disappointment for all players who still have funds stuck on FTP’s coffers since, still according to the agreement, once the sale has been finalized, the DoJ will be responsible for repaying US players while GBP would assume responsibilities for non-US players. More worrying still however is the response from Attorney Jeff Ifrah as regards the subject of whether or not US players will be reimbursed in full by the DoJ. Ifrah was quoted as having stated “I think that’s an open-ended question if they’ll get fully reimbursed.”
In the meantime, we are left to ponder on how soon FTP will decide on voluntarily forfeiting its assets to the US DoJ which is required for the deal to finally take place. Still according to Jeff Ifrah “I think it’s very safe to assume that the US and GBT would not have gone through the process of arriving at a signed agreement without very strong comfort that the company would facilitate the deal by voluntarily forfeiting its assets.” According to some sources the forfeiture will have to be voted upon by Full Tilt Poker Shareholders and a 2/3 majority will be required to secure the deal.
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