SETTLEMENT PacificNet Inc., gaming technology provider for land-based, online and mobile game operators in Asia, announced on Thursday it has entered a settlement agreement with certain bondholders.
Earlier this year, bondholders filed an involuntary petition seeking Chapter 11 relief in Delaware federal bankruptcy court. The settlement states that PacificNet Inc. will amend and restate the terms of certain convertible debentures in the aggregate principle amount of $6.2 million.
Additionally, the company will make ten monthly payments under the debentures and also apply sums due under certain receivables toward payment. All obligations of the Company to the bondholders under the Debentures are due on or before July 15, 2009.
''We are very glad to settle our differences with the bondholders so we can move forward to focus on the Asian Gaming Technology Strategy,” said Victor Tong, president of PacificNet Inc., in a prepared statement. “We believe gaming is recessionary proof due to the increased wealth across Asia and China and that PacificNet is well-positioned to take advantage of the market in the future."
KOREA RESEARCH A forecast released by Pearl Research, a San Francisco-based consulting firm, predicts the online gaming market in South Korea will reach $1.7 billion by 2009.
According to the research report “Games Market in Korea,” 67 percent of Koreans in the 20-30 age bracket purchased online paid content, which includes mostly includes downloading music (91 percent) and community avatars (39 percent).
The most popular segment, the report found, are casual games, which are free, intuitive and require less time from the player.
AFFILIATE 2.0 Income Access, a resource provider for gaming operators and affiliates, has unveiled a social networking site geared for those in the I-gaming affiliate community.
BetweenDrinks.com, currently in beta, has set out to become the MySpace or Facebook for affiliate managers, affiliates and gambling operators -- a place where users can link to old and new friends, share advice, post photos, define friendship details, construct and participate in polls, join groups, post classifieds and blots -- almost identical features of popular social networking sites.
"We felt that people who work in affiliate marketing for I-gaming needed their own place where they could interact,” said Nicky Senyard, chief executive of Income Access. "That's why we set out to offer industry member all the interactive functionalities of major social networking sites, but with a much more targeted user-base. Everyone has such a great time at industry conferences in cities such as Barcelona and Amsterdam, and now the party won't have to end when they get home."
BET ON MAC PokerStars, a popular poker room, has launched downloadable Macintosh-compatible poker software. After a year of development, this new version of PokerStars software, which is available in 15 languages, will work on Mac OS X 10.4.10 or later versions.
Joe Hachem, 2005 World Series of Poker champion, is excited to be able to access PokerStars on a Mac without using third-party applications.
“I know a lot of the actors and musicians I coach via PokerStars will appreciate its release -- the creative community use Macs before any other computer,” he said in a prepared statement.
DEAL MAKERS Mahjong Time, an online mah-jongg gaming software provider, has signed its second major license with Ai Media Group, an entertainment provider who distributes games to more than half of China’s Internet cafes.
At the end of the month, the companies will launch a site with tournament-style four player mah-jongg specifically tailored for the Chinese marketplace.
“It is extremely expensive to market and launch a successful game, and it takes years to capture and build a loyal customer base,” said Olivia Hollaus, director of Ai Media Group, in a prepared statement. “That is why we have partnered with Mahjong Time, a proven company that provided us with a secure mahjong game that will appeal to the massive Chinese marketplace."
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