American Activist Jason Ader Succeeds In Year-Long Quest To Have European Bwin.Party Sold

By May of last year, Ader revealed he and SpringOwl, by then the fourth-largest shareholder in Bwin, “have received incredible support from the Bwin.Party shareholders” for their proposals, according to a report from Reuters at he time. Before the Bwin shareholder meeting in late May, Ader and the firm saw things eye-to-eye and Ader got Daniel Silvers, the president of SpringOwl, a seat on the Bwin board. From then, The Wall Street Journal says that Ader developed a strong relationship with Bwin Chairman Philip Yea, who assumed his post in April of last year. It was also Ader who is said to have urged 888 to negotiate with Bwin when it opened itself to being acquired. Bwin announced in November of last year that it was negotiating a merger with multiple companies.

The terms of the deal will have 888 Holdings paying 104.09 pence per share, comprised of 39.45 pence in cash and 0.404 new 888 shares, which is a 16.4% premium over tBWin’s share price on May 14, the day before GVC Holdings announced its bid for Bwin. Meanwhile, Ader told the publication that he will acquire as much 888 Holdings stock as he can in the deal because he believes the resulting firm can possibly take on online-gaming rival Amaya.

“[888 Holdings has] always been on my radar as the management team that would probably run the bwin assets better than anybody else,” Ader told The Wall Street Journal. In a statement, he said that he believes that 888 Holdings is not only the best buyer for Bwin, its management team will also realize significant long-term synergy value for Bwin shareholders with the least amount of execution and regulatory risk.

Disclosure: None