Chinese Company Looking to Buy Caesars Interactive Entertainment

Friday, July 22, 2016 :  CHINESE CONSORTIUM EYES CAESARS INTERACTIVE
 
Caesars Acquisition Company in advanced talks to sell online gambling division, say sources.
 
A Chinese consortium led by Giant Interactive Group Inc is currently negotiating the purchase of Caesars Interactive Entertainment, the online gambling subsidiary of Caesars Acquisition Co, according to a Reuters news agency report Friday.
 
Unnamed sources told Reuters that the parties are in advanced talks on an exclusive deal following an auction that also included U.S. toymaker Hasbro Inc and South Korean mobile game company Netmarble Games .
 
If successful, the deal could value CIE at over $4.2 billion, the sources claimed. The deal does not include the companys real money games or World Series of Poker.
 
None of the negotiating parties would comment on the report when approached.
 
Giant, which develops and operates multiplayer games, was taken private in 2014 for $3 billion, by a group of buyers that included company chairman Yuzhu Shi and private equity firm Baring Private Equity Asia Ltd, according to the Reuters report.
 
CIE generated revenues up 23 percent to $766 million in 2015, and its sale will help fund a new group being created through a merger of Caesars Acquisition and Caesars Entertainment, a move associated with the controversial and litigious $18 billion bankruptcy of the groups main operating unit, Caesars Entertainment Operating Co.