Reuters is reporting that bwin shareholders voted to approve the PartyGaming merger on Friday.
The result, as has been heavily reported throughout the online gambling universe, will be “the world’s largest online gaming business”.
It’s a $3.3 billion deal; that price is “based on share prices when the transaction was unveiled in July”.
Although the two companies typically refer to the tie-up as a partnership of equals, bwin shareholders will actually own 51.6 percent of the company, versus 48.4 percent for PartyGaming investors.
“The new group will be listed on the London Stock Exchange and jointly run by current chief executives of the two companies, Jim Ryan and Norbert Teufelberger,” the Reuters article continues.
Last month, the companies announced that the merged company would be called bwin.party, and that, for the immediate future, they’d retain their current brand names and strategies. That most likely means no immediate effects for affiliates who promote these online gaming brands.
In addition, 99.4 percent of PartyGaming shareholders approved the tie-up with bwin, EGR reports.
“Today’s shareholder meetings were a key milestone in the overall process, putting the transformational merger of our two companies well on the way to completion,” said Jim Ryan and Norbert Teufelberger, soon-to-be co-CEOs of bwin.party digital entertainment plc, in a joint statement.