888.com Goes Public to the Tune of $261 million |
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888 Holdings, the Gibraltar-based company that runs the gaming sites 888.com, PacificPoker.com, and ReefClubCasino.com, has just gone public. This morning, the company released 84.4 million shares on the London Stock Exchange, earning shareholders about $261 million and bringing the company's value to $1.04 billion.
The sale represented about 25 percent of the company's stock. Israeli brothers Avi and Aaron Shaked retained 51.2 percent of the company's stock, which is valued at $550 million. They owned about 70 percent of the company before the sale and each made about $94 million today.
Brothers Shay and Ron Ben-Yitzhak, who collectively owned 23 percent of the company's stock, sold $63 million worth of stock and retained about 17 percent of 888 Holdings, which is valued at $184 million.
Shares might have gone higher if the company went public a month ago, before PartyGaming released its quarterly report. In it, an independent auditor predicted that online poker growth would slow in upcoming months. The day the report was released, PartyGaming's stock dropped 33 percent.
888 Holdings had predicted that it would be worth about $1.5 billion after the sale, but fell short due to PartyGaming's report. 888 Holdings stock price opened at 182 pence and ended the day at 170 pence.
PartyGaming's stock spiked at 176 pence in late July before falling to 105 pence on Sept. 5. It dropped from 97.5 pence to 87.5 pence today (Sept. 29).
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