AIEE Purchases Excel Design

27 April 1999
Atlantic International Entertainment, Ltd., AIE (AIEE) remains active in the wheeling-and-dealing department. A week after selling online casinos to ImperiaMedia, the company announced that it has acquired 100 percent of Las Vegas based Excel Design, Inc, a developer of handheld portable and wireless gaming devices.

Excel's Pegasus PM-28 system (a handheld device) gives gaming operators the flexibility to extend play to secured areas in the sportsbook, bar, restaurant, pool and bingo areas. The system, which runs existing gaming companies' programs (e.g. Bally & Sigma), requires no bill hopper and no coin mechanism. It can be located in a kiosk or any secured area the casino chooses. The terms of the transaction included $200,000 and 50,000 stock options to California based Advance Manufacturing & Development Inc. Additional stock options were granted to the management staff at Excel.

The acquisition could signify another step toward the integration of the online and traditional gaming industries. "In the near term, we see great potential expanding the penetration of Excel's products into a variety of markets - Las Vegas casinos, cruise lines, Australian clubs and South African casinos pointed out AIEE President Richard A Iamunno," pointed out AIEE President Richard A Iamunno. "Additionally, we intend to integrate our existing Internet-based games to extend Excel's product line. In the long term, we think that the access to the Las Vegas market that Excel brings us will be a vital platform to sell Atlantic's Internet-based products if and when these casinos are allowed to offer such products."

Last week, AIEE sold multiple online casinos to a company called ImperiaMedia. The first of the casinos to go live will be Goldmine Casino. A second casino, Casino Nederlands, will launch within a few weeks.