Takeover bid for Empire Online

Industry commentators were quick to play down speculation regarding how much PartyGaming might be willing to put on the table should it go ahead with a takeover bid for Empire Online.
After it was announced that PartyGaming had made a preliminary approach, press reports this morning suggested that PartyGaming, the world’s largest online poker room, could offer up to £400m for Empire.
The offer for Empire comes after PartyGaming set up an operating poker platform purely aimed at players on PartyPoker.com on October 10, in effect ring-fencing its existing player base from the platform it previously shared with its ‘skins’ EmpirePoker, Intertops, Coral Eurobet and Multipoker.

On the same day, Empire issued a bullish trading update, saying net gaming revenues had grown 24% in Q3 compared with Q2 2005, before then issuing a profit warning on October 18, announcing that its growth would be 10% below original forecasts as a result of PartyGaming’s platform switch.