GTECH Corporation
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GTECH Corporation, a company based in West Greenwich, Rhode Island, in the United States became a wholly owned subsidiary of Lottomatica, S.p.A., on August 29, 2006. Lottomatica is the license holder for the Italian National Lottery; and the De Agostini Group, a privately held Italian holding company that is Lottomatica's majority shareholder. The merger of GTECH and Lottomatica included a cash transaction valued at approximately $4.7 billion on a fully diluted basis, including the assumption of debt. This transaction has created one of the world's leading gaming solutions providers, with significant global market share and the broadest portfolio of technology, services, and content solutions. GTECH manages many state lotteries in the United States and also has contracts to manage local and national lotteries in Europe, Australia, Latin America and Asia. It is considered to be on the forefront of online lottery technology development.
According to a GTECH news release, Lottomatica, along with GTech now control 63% of the worldwide online lottery business. The companies employ more than 6,300 people worldwide and earned in excess of $US 1.5 billion in 2005. GTECH, now a Lottomatica subsidiary, maintains operations centers in Australia, Belgium, Poland and Brazil.
In March 2003, GTECH announced its plans to move its headquarters from its campus in West Greenwich to Providence, and is building a new 10 story building in downtown on Waterplace Park. The new headquarters is scheduled for completion in 2006.
As of 2005, the company began diversifying into casino management in the United States. On March 2, 2005, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania announced that it had selected GTECH to supply a central control computer system that will monitor slot machine gaming for the state, when it is authorized to begin no earlier than 2006.
In September 2005, the company announced that it was putting itself up for sale. According to press reports, this was done in response to an unsolicited bid for the company by the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs. In January 2006, it was announced that GTECH would be purchased by Italian companies Lottomatica SpA and De Agostini SpA. Lottomatica operates Italy's Lotto and De Agostini is a privately held holding company and Lottomatica's majority shareholder. GTECH survived the sale and will operate as a business unit of Lottomatica.
GTECH's ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange was GTK, however the stock has been delisted in the United States and Lottomatica S.p.A has been listed on the Mercato Telematico Azionario in Milan as LTO, and managed by Borsa Italiana since May 17, 2001.
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