It has been established that the Evolution Gaming Company and the NetEnt Games Company will be operating together under the name Evolution. It was made official on Tuesday the 1st of December, following the completion of the acquisition.
The acquisition of NetEnt by the Evolution Gaming Company had earlier been supported by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) of the United Kingdom, after eliminating the barrier of the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority on 29 September.
Originally, the Evolution Gaming Company had expressed their expectation that the transaction would close on the 2nd of November, with the approval period starting from the 17th of August and expiring on or around the 26th of October.
However, with the final closure, this new development has brought about a total reorganization and integration of NetEnt, with the management of Evolution assuming operational responsibility for NetEnt. This is basically a total restructuring of the business, streamlining the business within the development of slot games, and closure of NetEnt’s Live offer.
In a press release, Evolution stated that these streamlining measures would surely have consequences within business support units in the company.
The company stated thus, “All measures are in line with the synergy goals which were previously communicated, in connection with the announcement of the offer, with the annual cost savings of EUR 30 million compared to NetEnt’s and Evolution’s combined cost bases as of the first quarter of 2020”.
The business will, however, continue to offer products under its existing four brands, Evolution, Ezugi, NetEnt, and RedTiger. As a result of Evolution’s management assuming operational responsibility for the acquired business, NetEnt chief executive Therese Hillman will continue to support the integration before leaving the business in the first quarter of 2021.
Evolution Gaming Takes Full Control
The Evolution Gaming Group announced on November 23rd that the public offer to get a hold of all the shares in NetEnt for 0.1306 Evolution shares had been rounded off and declared unconditional. Also, the acceptance period had been stretched through November 30th.
On Tuesday the 1st of December, Evolution went ahead to announce that the offer had been closed and thereby accepted to a degree where Evolution will hold a total of 96.8 percent of the outstanding shares in NetEnt, which is approximately 237,689,754 shares. Evolution also holds approximately 98.6 percent of the votes in NetEnt.
It has been reported that the deal had been supported by 93.9% of the total number of shares, and 97.3% of the total number of votes in NetEnt by the 23rd of November. Within the seven days from the 23rd to the 30th of November, investors holding 7.1 million series A shares in the business supported the offer. Meanwhile, investors holding another 7.1 million series B shares also supported the offer. When added, it gives a total of 237.7 million shares in NetEnt.
Evolution has also brought into effect a compulsory buy-out procedure in order to acquire all outstanding shares in the business. On the other hand, at the request of Evolution, NetEnt has applied to have its shares delisted from the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange.
