Next Friday, the world’s largest online gaming company that is traded on a national stock exchange, Party Gaming PLC, will announce its fourth quarter 2008 earnings and key performance indicators. The organization is the parent company of popular online poker room PartyPoker.
Jim Ryan, Chief Executive Officer of Party Gaming, and Group Finance Director Martin Weigold will be leading the discussion of the company’s performance over the last quarter of 2008 at 9:30am London time for shareholders and industry analysts to participate in. A quick review of the last six months reveals that the conference call should show that Party Gaming has weathered the recent market fluctuations well and is ready to move towards an improved 2009.
At the start of the third quarter on June 2nd, 2008, PartyGaming was trading at 300p on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol PRTY. This was prior to the worldwide economic downturn that struck virtually every stock market, currency, and company around the globe. At one point during the economic upheaval, Party Gaming’s stock fell as far as 95p, but it has since been able to rebound to 194.75p at the end of 2008 and finished trading on Friday at 173.25p.
2008 marked a period of significant change both with Party Gaming’s stock as well as its corporate makeup. June saw the departure of former CEO Mitch Garber over differences with the company’s Board of Directors. Ryan stepped in as CEO at that point and assumed an aggressive three year campaign to move Party Gaming back to the forefront of the online gaming and poker markets that it used to own.
After the tumultuous market stretch of the late fall and early winter, one of the Co-Founders of Party Gaming, Anurag Dikshit, entered into a plea bargain with the United States Department of Justice for his participation in online gaming. He admitted to violating of the Wire Act of 1961 and agreed to pay a fine of $300 million. He also still faces the possibility of two years in jail for his plea; Dikshit, however, is assisting the government in further investigations into online gaming and has had his potential sentencing delayed until late next year. Meanwhile, Party Gaming continues negotiations with the government over the same issue.
Earlier this month, Party Gaming announced that the longtime Managing Director of the organization, John O’Malia, would step down from his post in order to enter into other business interests. O’Malia had been with Party Gaming since 2006, when the company he had served as CEO of, Gamebookers, was acquired by Party Gaming. He stayed with Party Gaming through the integration of Gamebookers into the company and was named to the Board of Directors and Managing Director last year. After O’Malia’s departure at the end of February, Ryan will step in to take over his position with Party Gaming.
