A new bet - The Sydney Morning Herald - 11th August 2008
We'd hate to read too much into it.
But with Paul Oneile cashing in his chips at pokie maker Aristocrat, a few names have already been thrown around as his possible replacement. Among them is a chap named Gavin Isaacs, who runs operations at Aristocrat's competitor, Bally Technologies, in Las Vegas.
Isaacs is a fellow Australian who headed up the US operations of Aristocrat until the harmony between him and Oneile is said to have become too great to bear.
Isaacs headed to rival Bally, which has enjoyed a few jackpots of late and where he is whispered to be in the running to become the new chief one-armed bandit when his boss's contract runs out at the end of the year.
But we hear Isaacs has sold the fancy four-bedroom home in downtown Henderson, Las Vegas, that he bought in 2004.
We're not sure if it's a sign of anything in particular about a possible job movement back home to Aristocrat.
But, given he bought the house for $US1.1 million and sold it for $US850,000 we recognise the kind of value creation to which Aristocrat shareholders have become accustomed.
Punches pulled
Sadly, the much-anticipated heavyweight bout between the James Packer-backed Challenger Infrastructure Fund and the British property gazillionaire unit holder Vincent Tchenguiz has been cancelled.
When Tchenguiz's Arkmile weighed in for the bout, it was as the heavyweight second-largest shareholder seeking to "unlock the value" in the fund, demanding it be wound up.
Things got tetchy when Arkmile disclosed a holding of 18 per cent.
Challenger thought he weighed a touch more, asking the Takeovers Panel to force Tchenguiz to admit to a sizeable derivatives stake that would put it over 20 per cent and force it to launch a takeover.
Vince launched court action in response. And the boys suddenly had a stalemate.
On Friday, everyone decided they no longer needed to slug it out in court.
Vince's mob confirmed it didn't control voting rights to the derivatives and wouldn't seek to influence their votes. Arkmile dropped the court action and Challenger dropped the application to the panel.
More significantly, Arkmile dropped its call for the fund to be wound up.
Apparently, Vince's boys were said to be punching after the decision. If you can't quite lay a glove on Packer, the air will have to do.
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