Takeover Panel to force Partygaming and Bwin Interactive Entertainment to reveal merger details
December 14, 2009
At the annual eGaming Review Awards 2009 a couple of months ago, it was suggested that a merger between online gaming giants Partygaming and Austrian company Bwin Interactive Entertainment was on the cards. Bwin fought off stiff competition from their rivals to take home the illustrious Operator of the Year award this year, but it is believed that by next year’s awards, the rivalry will have ended.
Speculation over the merger, which is allegedly worth over £2 billion, was first reported in The Times last week, who claimed that formal talks between the two UK Bingo corporations have taken place. Since then, the Takeover Panel have been pushing for an end to speculation, and is reportedly forcing both companies to reveal their plans.
Merger prospects have been further enhanced by reports that Partygaming has been aiming to target a larger market and become a leading sportsbook operator and improve its online services in UK Bingo, poker, and casino games. Meanwhile, Bwin Interactive Entertainment has also declared plans to participate in industry consolidation, demonstrated by their recent £115 million acquisition of Italian poker room, Gioco Digitale.
As Partygaming has a market value of approximately £1 billion and Bwin is valued at £1.2 billion, the imminent deal has been classed as a ‘merger of equals’, although analysts believe that Partygaming has the capacity to fund an outright acquisition.
iPhone leads business telecoms technology conference
December 7, 2009
140 Irish small and medium enterprises (SMEs) participated in a business telecoms conference to look at technology used in smart phones, particularly the Apple iPhone.
The Enterprise Ireland event, which took place in Dublin, Irleand, was intended to give an overview into the technological possibilities that smart phones offer to SMEs from both a business telecoms and management point of view. By giving a broad outlook, it is hoped more organisations will begin to utilise these smart phones in future.
With features like mobile broadband internet access, GPS (with real time mapping) and bespoke applications (i.e. Apps), devices like the iPhone have a wealth of opportunities available for the SME business industry. This is all supported by the fact that newer smart phones are increasingly boasting features like high colour and resolution touch screens, which are also capable of multitouch processing. Multitouch allows more gestures and commands to be recognised than single touch screens, which are limited to taps and slides in one place on the screen at a time.
The exhibition took a look at the requirements and costs involved with developing the aforementioned applications and their benefits to SMEs as a whole and individually. It was attended by over 140 people from different Irish SMEs and development industries.
