Harrah's to be Bought Out

Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. the world's largest operator of casino hotels with yearly revenues of over $7 billion, approved an offer to be bought out for an outstanding sum of $17.1 billion. The Las Vegas Strip, home of Harrah's most famous casino hotels Bally's Las Vegas, Caesars Palace and Paris Las Vegas, to name a few, now will have a new player in town. The total property owned by the company along the Strip is 350 acres. The company was bought by two private equity firms in a deal finalized this week.

The acquisition by two firms, Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group, is part of a trend of private investment companies purchasing gambling companies. This deal, naturally, is the most notable and largest of them all. The management team that operates the gambling activities and all the casino hotels is not expected to change due to the deal. Ownership, not the company's structure or strategy, will change. The buyout sum of $17.1 billion is based on $90 per share. It was offered $81 per share by the companies a few months ago. It was also offered an $87 per share offer from another player.

Besides owning institutions in 13 different states in the United States, including in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the company also owns the rights to the World Series of Poker. With the new ownership, it now will likely boost its competitiveness against the younger, newer, glitzy casino hotels on the Strip. As the epicenter of all similar venues in the world, Las Vegas will be the center of their activities in the future as well.

The company was founded in 1937, and went public in 1971. In 1980 it was purchased by the hotel chain Holiday Inn, and was made into a chain. Operating across the United States, in Canada and in Uruguay, the new ownership will have free hospitality at any hotel casino they would like to.