partypoker might go public via IPO

[richardb]

Potentially good news. PartyGaming (formerly known as iGlobalMedia) who owns PartyPoker.com might go public on the London Stock Exchange. This is potentially good news because it will help to try to legitimize the online poker industry and will allow more people to find about partypoker, leading to more search engine queries for partypoker, etc. Might also be a great investment. Here is the link to the story:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/busines...d397508?source=

I can't see any benefit to them to go public besides "legitimacy" which they already have a good amount of. I mean, they have all the money in the world no need for investors. And, they have a business that can't really escalate very much . IF they went public they would most likely just be buying other stupid little companies taking all there customers and shutting them down - basically becoming a conglomerate.

I would guess that it would be a pretty good IPO if it does happen. It just amazes me why they would want to. The whole point of going public is to raise capital. My guess is they are pretty cash heavy already.

[richardb]

i am sure the original investors in the company are pushing for it. they want to IPO while the poker market is HOT and hopefully get an outrageous valuation for their shares. then they can dump some on the open market to book some massive profits.

If the handful of investors sell 40% and keep total control of the company with the remaining 60%, they pocket over two billion dollars. What is to not understand?

[richardb]

i think you are missing the point. if you believe the company is worth 5 billion dollars as a private company, it is pretty hard to sell 40% of it to private investors. it is much easier to do it on the open market. also, the open market might give the stock a crazy valuation and bump up the shares to make this a 10billion+ company. who knows.