BetOnSports AIM Float Clears £54.6 million
BetOnSports.com Plc launched the third largest initial public offering of the year on London's junior stock market, raising £54.6 million on July 12. The company, which placed 39 million shares at 140 pence each (or 48.1 percent of its issued share capital), said that investors showed stronger interest than expected. The company achieved a market capitalization of £113.6 million, though it anticipated £100 million. BetOnSports will begin trading on the Alternative Investment Market on July 15.
William Hill's Trading Update Causes Stock Plummet
William Hill Plc (WMH.L) last week released a trading update stating that the company continues to experience strong trading and is performing in line with market expectations. Investors, however, were disappointed by the news because they were hoping for a broker upgrade. Shares have consequently fallen from 543p to 533p. William Hill's stock also fell a few points a couple of weeks ago when the company's CEO, David Harding, sold £5 million worth of shares to assist in his divorce settlement.
World Poker Tour Plans IPO
Steve Lipscomb and Lakes Entertainment Inc. (LACO) this spring filed with the U.S. SEC to make the World Poker Tour a publicly traded company. They plan to sell 4 million shares at $5 to $7 per share. Despite raking in $4.2 million worth of revenue last year, mostly from licensing agreements with the Travel Channel, the World Poker Tour lost $493,000 overall. It was profitable in the first quarter of 2004, however, and should clear over $12.6 million in revenue from licensing fees over the year. The Tour has also landed Anheuser Busch as a corporate sponsor.
Bingo.com's Debenture "B" Converted
Bingo.com, Inc. (OTC:BIGR), which operates the bingo portal at www.bingo.com, announced that Bingo, Inc., the company that held debenture "B" of $145,000 in Bingo.com, decided on July 2 to convert the debenture into 966,667 shares of Bingo.com at a rate of $0.15 per share and to convert the accrued interest of $34,895.36 on debenture B into 174,477shares at a rate of $0.20 per share. The debenture conversion removes Bingo.com's long-term debt and significantly reduces its interest expense and stockholders deficit. Bingo, Inc. now holds 12,696,831 shares of Bingo.com, or 52 percent of the company.
Wireless Apps Company to Go Public
JAMDAT Mobile Inc., a global publisher of wireless entertainment applications such as games, ring tones and images, has filed with the SEC for an initial public offering of shares of its common stock. Lehman Brothers Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. will act as joint book-running managers of the offering and UBS Investment Bank will serve as lead manager. The company has agreements to distribute its applications through 72 wireless carriers in 38 countries.
CES Software Buys SkillJam
CES Software plc (CES.L), a U.K.-based betting exchange technology provider, has entered into an agreement to acquire SkillJam, an online, pay-to-play skill games service from eUniverse, Inc. (EUNI.PK), which does business as Intermix Media. California-based SkillJam has over 5 million registered users and also develops and hosts private-label gaming solutions for network partners, including MSN, iWon/Excite, Disney's Go.com, iVillage and Boxerjam. In its last fiscal year, SkillJam lost about $200,000 on $4 million in revenues.