PLDT seals PhilWeb acquisition

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PLDT seals PhilWeb acquisition
Posted: 4:39 AM | Jun. 10, 2006
Daxim L. Lucas
Inquirer

THE country's largest telecommunications firm yesterday completed its acquisition of 20 percent of PhilWeb Corp., boosting its plan to enter into the online gaming business.

In a statement to the stock exchange, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) said its subsidiary ePLDT Inc. remitted to PhilWeb last June 8 some P427 million as payment for the stake in the firm controlled by Roberto Ongpin.

As a result of the transaction, PLDT said that PhilWeb's board of directors will hold a special meeting to elect ePLDT's three nominee-directors and a vice chairman representing the telecommunications giant.

The deal is expected to give a big boost to online gaming in the country as PLDT's telecommunications resources—including the country's largest cellular phone network—are mated with PhilWeb's gaming franchise from the government.

Talk is also rife that PLDT will proceed to acquire more PhilWeb shares to be able to fully control the online gaming market—a suggestion that Ongpin has already shot down.

He said he was unwilling to sell more PhilWeb shares to PLDT and that the latter can instead buy its relatively illiquid stock through the bourse.

PhilWeb is primarily engaged in Internet-based gaming, through its appointment as principal technology service provider of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor), with which it has a marketing consultancy agreement for Internet sports betting and Internet casino operations.

PhilWeb offers Internet sports betting in over 230 Pagcor Internet sports betting stations (ISBS) and over 40 Internet casino stations nationwide.