I have long thought the same thing as you about Playtech. I have a friend who works for an online casino and sports betting company (100% crypto-based) ran out of eastern Europe, with customers in China, India, Europe and North America, but based in the type of location which Sam Bankman Fried would approve of. According to him, there are
always people trying to scam them and various groups and individuals looking at every possible angle to get an unfair advantage. I got the impression that not just the jurdistictions which Playtech operated in, but the corporate culture itself was questionable. By the time ALL dismantled the company, closed the dodgy operations in the Golden Triangle, and oversaw the divestment of other divisions, I wonder about what would have remained. A number of mergers and acquisitions -- which looked great on paper -- have failed miserably due to cultural / compatibility issues. One only needs to look at our major casinos in Australia this year to see what happens when the sales and marketing divisions gain the upper hand over the accounting / compliance / risk management departments in a gambling business. The short-term incentives to cut corners is too great. The various, perhaps sketchy, figures coming out of the woodwork in relation to Playtech and the takeover offers in 2022 has been surprising. I have wondered how we would have managed the type of ruthless individuals which seemed to be connected with Playtech. Also, whether we could have dealt with such figures successfully from Australia, as a responsible listed company. All of this is speculation on my part, and purely academic since the deal fell through regardless.
Still, I have enjoyed reading about the dramas Playtech has faced. It shopped itself around for purchasers, and has gone from disappointment to disappointment with other deals falling through. At the time I was annoyed the deal didn't go through, but with hindsight it could be a blessing in disguise. The drama has been amusing to watch from afar. I would say 2022 has been a bigger letdown for their shareholders than for us here at ALL.
We raised money by selling shares at, I think, $43.00 to fund that purchase. ALL has then been buying back shares with all that money on its balance sheet at anywhere down to $33.00; which is a pretty nice situation for the company to be in. I'd be happy if they stopped paying me a dividend completely (nobody buys ALL for the 2% yield) and ramp up the buyback even further. Our shares are at an almost two year low. I'd like to see more getting purchased and raising the EPS on the shares remaining like some of these ASX-listed coal companies! Trevor and the board are very smart operators. I am sure they see the same buying opportunity that I and others here do, and will be either onto a buyback extension, or looking at the takeover targets hinted at in the impromptu investor call the day the Playtech deal failed to go through.
Compare and contrast with ANZ, which was buying back shares at $27.00, then in the space of a few weeks decided to look at buying MYOB, then decided not to buy it after the idea was roundly criticised. Then it put in an offer for Suncorp's banking division and performed a capital raising at $18.90 at the very low point of the market in June -- just to buy something at fair price, which isn't earnings accretive.
I'm a little surprised that with the fall in share prices of tech-related companies, that we wouldn't have made a couple of small acquisitions. Not that there is (or isn't) a business case for needing anything. Just for my own personal enjoyment of reading about the purchases of companies I hold shares in, I suppose
(20min delay)