PartyGaming founder Dikshit cashes out
PartyGaming founder Anurag Dikshit has sold his remaining stake in the company he helped form in 1997, ending a 13-year saga in which the software expert was fined $300m by US authorities and became one of the world's richest people...
PARTYGAMING FOUNDER Anurag Dikshit has sold his remaining stake in the company.
Dikshit sold 38.8 million shares at a price of 270p per share through an accelerated bookbuild to institutional investors made by his Crystal Ventures vehicle, according to a statement released today.
The sale follows EGRmagazine.com‘s 20 October 2009 exclusive that Dikshit is to walk away from the company completely, after an announcement earlier that day that Dikshit was to sell just two thirds of his 28% stake in the British company to focus on his charitable work in south Asia.
Dikshit, who pleaded guilty to internet gambling charges under the US Wire Act last December and received a $300m fine, wanted to “move away from the whole issue and industry of PartyGaming,”spokesman Shimon Cohen told reporters at the time.
PartyGaming was founded in 1997 by a group that included Dikshit, who created its software platform. The company’s float on the London Stock Exchange in 2005 made him the world’s 207th-richest person the following year, according to US magazine Forbes.
In other company news this month, PartyGaming signed a five-year tie with Danske Spil, the Danish monopoly, to provide online casino and poker.
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