![]()
- Oil Next Week: What Traders Will Be Watching

- Hedge Fund Billionaire Paulson Reports New Citi Stake
- Cramer: 5 Earnings Reports to Watch Next Week
- Court Rejects 'Clawbacks' for Alleged Stanford Victims
- Tax Credit Sparking First-Time Home Sales: Realtors
- Investors Cut Back US Stocks for Bigger Growth Abroad
- Cities With the Most Home Price Reductions
- White House Plans to Freeze Spending to Cut Deficit
- This Year's Biggest Thanksgiving Leftover: Cash
- Oil Next Week: What Traders Will Be Watching
- Dollar is Not Plunging—So 'Calm Down': Market Strategist
- Strategists Say Markets Have More Upside — But How Much?
- Hirschhorn: Risk-Averse Traders
- Roginsky: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Financial Reform
- This Year's Biggest Thanksgiving Leftover: Cash
- TV Series Inks Unique Deal For Fight
- First Time Buyers Rescue Housing: Realtors
- Dollar General Trades Higher After Its IPO
- Fed Reform? Not So Fast.
MOST SHARED
- Seeking Innovation in Health Care
- Driving Health Care Innovation
- Cramer: 5 Earnings Reports to Watch Next Week
- Next Week’s Top IPO
- Hedge Fund Billionaire Paulson Reports New Citi Stake
- Web Extra: Where Will The Next Bull Come From?
- Has Twitter's Finest Hours (Seconds) Come and Gone?
- Court Rejects 'Clawbacks' for Alleged Stanford Victims
- Downturn is Prime Time for Airport Infrastructure Projects
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates: Keeping America Great
Harrah's Entertainment [HET
Loading...
()
] confirmed it has agreed to be acquired for $90 a share in cash, or $17.1 billion, by two private equity firms.
The purchase, which was reported earlier by CNBC, is by Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group and includes the assumption of $10.7 billion in Harrah's debt.
Harrah's, the world's largest casino company, was also courted by smaller rival Penn National Gaming, [PENN
Loading...
()
] which did not match the financial firepower of the private equity companies in its offer.
As part of the deal, investors will still collect the Harrah's quarterly dividend of $0.40 per share until the deal closes. Sources said it could be a year before the transaction is completed. Apollo will start paying interest after 14 months if the deal is not closed.
Harrah's management will continue to run the company as part of the deal with private equity buyers.
Harrah's board considered a third option of a recapitalization plan if neither of the bids were accepted. The recapitalization likely would have included a special dividend for shareholders.
The casino sector has been rife with deals this year as executives move to run their businesses away from the pressure of public markets amid strong demand from private equity firms that are branching out to new areas with hundreds of billions of dollars to spend.
The deal is one of the top ten largest private equity buyouts this year. Others include the $21 billion buyout of HCA and the $20 billion buyout of Equity Office Properties Trust.
The deal ends a takeover saga set in motion more than two months ago, when Las Vegas-based Harrah's said Apollo and TPG had offered to buy it. Smaller casino operator Penn National then began considering a bid.
![]()

That gap between the price offered and the level of Harrah's shares widened at various points during the past two months as investor confidence that a deal would be reached vacillated -- partly due to concerns the casino licensing requirements could mean a gap of at least a year before the deal can be completed, experts have said.
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates spoke to Columbia students, and Buffett made the students a startling offer.
- For the chief of cable company Comcast, growth has been about making deals – generally very large deals.
- Some companies may start using insurance to shift carbon risk from their balance sheets to maybe... yours?
- The president and founder of Genesis Today wants to improve America’s health, and thinks Wal-Mart can help.
- Switzerland's privacy watchdog is taking legal action to force Google to make changes to its Street View service.
- A wealthy, distracted Texas driver crashed his million-dollar Bugatti Veyron sports car into a salt marsh, say police.












