Yes, you read right. It appears the the Bernard Tapie Group’s efforts to buy beleaguered poker site Full Tilt Poker fell through leaving FTP without a potential buyer. That is, until Poker Stars stepped up to the plate.
According a story in Reuters, and pretty much every major media under the sun, and based on information acquired from an unidentified source, Poker Stars is currently in talks to purchase Full Tilt Poker where the Groupe Bernard Tapie had failed.
The deal under discussion is for PokerStars to buy up its former rival’s assets, according to the person. It would constitute a portion of a larger settlement of the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil case against Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker.
Part of the deal would formulate a method for paying back the some $300 million of player funds held up in the seizure, about $150 million of which belongs to players in the U.S.
In investigating the possible acquisition, Poker Stars has sent some of its people to FullTilt’s Dublin, Ireland headquarters to conduct due diligence.
Despite its sullied reputation after the events of Black Friday a little over a year ago now, Full Tilt Poker is still considered a leader in online poker, with an enormous database of poker player and poker software that ranks among the industry’s best.
Isle of Man based Poker Stars had its U.S. operations shut down in the same DOJ raids that shut Full Tilt’s U.S. operations, but unlike Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker was unable to continue its operations outside the U.S. when, in June of last year, it was learned that the site would not be able to pay back players the money held up in their accounts.