SportsBet Throws a Spanner into Centrebet's Works (Update)

March 4, 2009 (InfoPowa News) — The attempt by Australian sportsbetting group Centrebet to pull off a hostile takeover of International All Sports has been abandoned after a privately owned Australian gambling company, Sportsbet, took a 12.34 percent stake in IAS to short circuit Centrebet's bid for control.
 
Reporting on the new development, the Australian Financial Review quoted Sportsbet Chief Executive Matthew Tripp, who told the newspaper his Darwin-based company had bought the stake to have an influence on IAS's future.
 
IAS has sales of about AU $1.3 billion ($820 million) a year, Tripp told the Review.
 
Centrebet officially called off its attempted hostile takeover early Wednesday. Its offer to IAS shareholders was subject to Centrebet acquiring more than 50 percent of IAS shares and the Takeovers Panel releasing it from a confidentiality pact, neither of which materialized.