Mandalay's Bold Bid To Buy World Poker Tour Fails According To Report

According to a post this morning on GamblingOnline, the shareholders of World Poker Tour Entertainment (WPTE) voted to accept a $12.3mil purchase offer from UK online gaming powerhouse PartyGaming Plc (PRTY), through its Peerless Media subsidiary, at meeting in L.A. last Friday night. This presumably brings to an end the ambitions of Mandalay Media (MNDL), parent of mobile entertainment consumer brand Twistbox, to buy the company. Mandalay had mounted a bold (audacious), last minute bid that looked to be substantially superior ($36.5mil) from a purely financial standpoint... but apparently many WPTE shareholders felt that the match was not strategically superior. The deal should be completed at the end of the month according to the post. Given the massive discrepancy in the offers, I'm guessing this isn't the very end of the story... I'll keep you posted. If it is the end of this story, it'll be interesting to see if Mandalay diverts its acquisition ambitions elsewhere.

Quick Updates: Mandalay Ups WPT Bid & 3M's Artificial Life Investment

• Apparently Mandalay Media (MNDL) is jonesing hard for that World Poker Tour Entertainment (WPTE). According to a press release this morning it's now offering to "acquire WPT for $36.5 million, consisting of $28.5 million in cash, $5 million in Mandalay Media stock and perpetual revenue participation rights, guaranteed to be at least $3 million. The estimated value to shareholders per share is $1.77, including the guaranteed portion of the revenue participation rights, and as adjusted for the actual share count at closing. The proposal represents a premium of approximately 61% over the closing price of WPT’s common stock on October 26, 2009 and a premium of approximately 28% over the implied value at closing of WPT’s pending asset sale with Peerless Media Ltd." Investors clearly like this potential marriage because both stocks are up over 10% in early trading this morning. Mandalay estimates that if the acquisition is successful that synergies (buzzword alert) realized in the combined company will yield annual revenues in excess of $60mil (compared to $47mil if you add their 2008 revs) and EBITDA in excess of $8mil. btw - if anyone has any insight into how this potential deal is going to be financed, I'd love to hear about it.

• Just some quick housecleaning in terms of my post Monday about 3M's investment in Artificial Life (ALIF). In the end the 6,447,491 shares of common stock 3M purchased at $1 each actually gave them an 11.31% stake in the company... the original estimate was 10%.