888 has reached the latter stages of its takeover of William Hill with the deal expected to be completed around the 30th of June 2022. After an overwhelming approval from shareholders at 888’s Extraordinary General Meeting, near on 307 million votes were in favour of the acquisition.
Overwhelming Majority
The overwhelming majority made up 99% of all votes with 819,264 voting against, while 18,306 votes were withheld.After almost 9 months of negotiations, the overwhelming vote means the transition reached the final chapter.In September 2021, 888 agreed to acquire William Hill’s non-US business. Very soon after the agreement Caesars Entertainment took over the entire William Hill business for £2.90bn and intended to sell off all non-US assets.The fact that William Hill’s assets are bigger than 888’s, shareholders must agree with the takeover. On May 16th, 2022, the shareholders voted with an overwhelming majority in favour.Lord Mendlesohn of 888 Holdings said, “We are delighted with the support of our shareholders for our proposed acquisition of William Hill and would like to thank them for their continued, constructive engagement as part of this process.“We look forward to completing this transformational acquisition at the end of June., creating a global online betting and gaming leader through the combination of two highly complementary businesses and two of the industry’s leading brands.”News of a completion date comes over a month after Caesars agreed to a reduction on the purchase price of William Hill’s non-US by £250m, due to the macro-economic regulatory environment.