Casino Journal's "National Gaming Summary" newsletter reports that not all is well with the Tabcorp Holdings takeover talks at Star City Holdings. According to a story in the publication's May 10 issue, small shareholders told Star City's annual meeting that they don't think the takeover offer is good enough.
Tabcorb is offering one of its shares plus A$1.49 in cash for every eight Star City shares (valuing Star City shares at A$1.77.
The article pointed out that "one shareholder said that for someone buying Star City shares at the float price of $1.28, there was not much change left if they accepted the Tabcorp offer and paid capital gains tax. 'Tabcorp has already said it knows nothing about casinos, so what is in it for shareholders if their company is to be taken ver by somebody that doesn't know how to run a casino?' he asked"
Star City hasn't officially responded to Tabcorp's $1.8 billion offer, although the bid is expected to be accepted.
Meanwhile, all's been relatively quiet at Star City since CEO Neil Gamble was quoted in late April as saying that the company is seeking a partnership in coming months to pursue a venture in the online gaming industry. Star City's Peter Grimshaw told IGN, "We are having discussions with a range of companies -- which are expert in the technology areas -- who want to link up with Star City, which has the gaming expertise and the reputation. … We are very interested in Internet gaming, however, state and federal governments are treading very slowly at the moment. We don't want to spend millions of dollars on the project only to see governments ban Internet gaming."