Caesars ponders on selling Caesars Interactive Entertainment

Caesars Entertainment Corp is reportedly considering US$4b offers for Caesars Interactive Entertainment.

US.- Caesars Entertainment Corp is considering selling Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE,) its interactive branch. This is one of the company’s few units that is actually in the black, however, the group is facing the possibility of being forced into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, so selling Caesars Interactive Entertainment may provide some oxygen.

It transpired that Caesars has received multiple, unsolicited offers to acquire Caesars Interactive Entertainment,  which includes a very lucrative social gaming division, the World Series of Poker brand, and real-money gambling operation that isn’t quite as successful.

CIE is valued by the bids at more than US$4 billion. According to the Wall Street Journal investment bank Raine Group had been enlisted by Caesars to help evaluate the offers, whilst the usual conditions, no guarantee of the sale and no formal sale was in progress, were stressed.

For more than a year now, Caesars has been focused on bringing Caesars Entertainment Operating Co, its main operating unit, out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. However, pre-bankruptcy transfers of properties in the black such as CIE out of the struggling CEOC, to keep them out of the reach of creditors, have met opposition.

So even though CIE makes for an attractive acquisition, the fact that Caesars and Caesars Acquisition Co (CACQ) jointly own CIE and that the latter is the subject of multiple lawsuits with junior creditors seeking billions of dollars, presents a major problem.