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GTECH Corporation, a company based in Providence, Rhode Island, 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 the Caribbean and Asia.
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.
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, Ireland, Poland and Brazil.
GTECH moved its corporate headquarter from its campus in West Greenwich, to a $80 million 10-story building in downtown Providence, Rhode Island near Waterplace Park.[2] Employees moved into the new headquarters scheduled in November 2006, and GTECH laid off 200 employees in December 2006. Company executives stated the layoffs had nothing to do with the acquisition.
After a few years, from 2004 to early 2006, of GTECH struggling to maintain continuity of CTO leadership, GTECH's current CTO has settled into the role providing support to the 2000 game engineers and technologists since April 2006. GTECH has been stretching the edges of technology innovation including distributed gaming servers, camera technologies, wireless play, service orientated architecture platforms, responsible gaming devices and risk engines.
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.
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 Loto 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. CEO Bruce Turner will become the CEO of Lottomatica, and the CFO and COO will also assume equivalent roles in the new company.
References
- ^ Some info regarding founding of GTECH by one of its founders
- ^ Luxury condos, city's first skyscraper scheduled for 2007 completion - Metro
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