22nd May 2014 10:46
LONDON (Alliance News) - Online gaming company Bwin.party Digital Entertainment PLC Thursday said that it has now agreed to work together, rather than against, its active investor SpringOwl, in an effort to shape the company's new board of directors.
Just last week, Bwin.party said it had commenced a search for three new independent directors for the board and was still urging shareholders to vote against the nominations for additional directors by Gibraltar-based firm SpringOwl Gibraltar Partners B Ltd.
This included SpringOwl's four proposed board representatives: US internet entrepreneur Michael Fertik, venture capitalist Kalendu Patel, Steven Rittvo, chairman and co-founder of consulting firm The Innovation Group, and Francis Grady.
But Bwin.party said in a statement Thursday that it has now agreed to work closely with SpringOwl on the appointment of the new board directors, and said that it has even agreed to consider Fertik as a potential candidate.
Bwin.party also said that SpringOwl has now put forward the name of the one director that it was already entitled to appoint under the terms of its shareholding acquisition agreement, with SpringOwl nominating Daniel Silvers.
Bwin.party had said last week that, following an independent board evaluation, Deputy Chairman Rod Perry will retire once a successor has been selected, while Manfred Bodner and Helmut Kern also will be stepping down as non-executive directors.
SpringOwl, run by Jason Ader, acquired a 6.1% share of the gambling group back in February, from the founder's trusts. However, it later reduced its shareholding to 5.27%. As part of the agreement, SpringOwl, which is said to adopt an active approach to its investments, also was assigned the right to appoint one director to the Bwin.party board, as long as its shareholding remained above 5%.
However, last month, SpringOwl instead put forward nominations for four directors for the board, not including the director that SpringOwl already had the right to appoint.
"I am pleased to be able to demonstrate common ground with SpringOwl and welcome its support," said Chairman Philip Yea in the statement Thursday.
Bwin.party shares were down 1.6% Thursday morning, trading at 117.20 pence each.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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