Bally Tech in $1.3 billion deal for games maker

Bally Technologies has agreed to acquire SHFL Entertainment, a maker of casino games, for nearly $1.3 billion in cash. 


Formerly known as Shuffle Master, SHFL makes products like automatic card shufflers and roulette chip sorters, as well as proprietary table games and electronic gambling machines. The company, based in Las Vegas and founded in 1983, went public in 1992. In its most recent quarter, about 45 percent of its revenue came from Australia and Asia. 

Bally is paying $23.25 a share, which represents a premium of 24 percent over SHFL's closing price on Monday and a premium of 37 percent over the average closing price of its common stock for the 90 days ended Monday. For Bally, also based in Las Vegas, the deal would be its biggest acquisition to date, according to S&P's Capital IQ data. Bally has offices in Bangalore and Chennai.