Poker Stars was founded in 1999 by Isai Scheinberg, and he and his family own roughly 75% of the company. The estimated value of Poker Stars is $2 billion, and according to some reports, Scheinberg is interested in selling his interest in the company. He might sell his portion of the company to another company or an individual, or they might go public in an IPO. (I think that a Poker Stars IPO would be bigger than any other poker IPO we've seen.)

News reports say that a flotation and IPO are definitely possible, but that Scheinberg would prefer an actual sale of the company, presumably wanting to exit the business while it's still at the peak of its popularity.

888 Holding a Potential Suitor?

Rumor has it that one online gambling company that might be interested in purchasing a controlling interest in PokerStars is 888 Holding. Since 888 is the largest gambling company in the world, they'd be a likely contender for an acquisition of Pokerstars. (888 owns Pacific Poker, which is considered the 4th largest poker room on the internet.)

Other Interested Parties

Additional parties who might be interested in acquiring Pokerstars include a company called the Rank Group and William Hill, which are both traditional gambling companies interested in expanding their online presence.

Who Owns the Other 25% of PokerStars

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the other 25% of the company is actually owned by the employees there, or at least most of it. I'm personally a big fan of motivating employees through equity-sharing programs, so I'm glad to see that the employees of Poker Stars have been taken care of through the years.

I'll post additional information about a Poker Stars IPO or acquisition here as news becomes available.

Click Here to visit Poker Stars now.

This page was last updated on January 5, 2006.