Third offer made for WPT

The deal was put on hold pending stockholder approval and in the interim another offer was made. SEC guidelines required the company to consider the new offer and in late August, the WPT announced it had accepted it.

This time the buyer was a subsidiary of PartyGaming, which also owns the online poker site PartyPoker

The deal was similar to the Gamynia offer, except the subsidiary, Peerless Media Ltd., had agreed to pay $12.3 million for the company's assets and 5% of future gaming and other revenues.

This week, with a WPT shareholders meeting to discuss the Peerless Media offer scheduled for today (Oct. 30), a third offer was tendered.

This third offer came from Mandalay Media, Inc., a global publisher and distributor of branded entertainment for 3G mobile networks.

The proposal seeks to acquire the WPT for a whopping $36.5 million, consisting of $28.5 million in cash, $5 million in Mandalay Media stock and perpetual revenue participation rights, guaranteed to be at least $3 million.

According to Mandalay, the estimated value to shareholders is $1.77 per share, approximately 61% over the closing price of WPT stock as of Oct. 26 and close to 28% more than the Peerless Media offer.

While both the Peerless Media and Gamynia offers appeared to include plans to push the WPT brand further into online gaming, a letter to WPT shareholders from Mandalay Media says its plan is to move the WPT into mobile and Internet prizes game play until the legal situation with online gaming in the United States is cleared up.

"As gambling becomes legal, we will already be positioned to immediately offer that functionality to the WPT community," the letter states.

SEC guidelines require the WPT to now consider this latest offer.