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The battleground may be littered with wounded Vegas royalty when all is said and done in the continuing saga of gaming company IGT’s proxy fight. Casino bigwigs are being forced to take sides.
Investor and gaming analyst Jason Ader is attempting to wrestle control away from current CEO Patti Hart. He’s also a board member of Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corporation. Ader’s hedge fund is a major shareholder in what is one of the world’s largest slot manufacturers.
And most of the Vegas higher-ups just happen to be customers of IGT. Some support Ader (Steve Wynn, Sheldon Adelson). Others are taking the side of Hart and her allies, most notably Nevada Governor Bob Miller, who sits on both IGT’s and Wynn Resorts’ boards.
"All we were looking to do was put three directors on the board to help the company, and we're happy to work with the existing board however we can," Ader told Business Insider.
Wynn last week blasted the current IGT Management for drafting an unflattering letter about former IGT Chairperson and friend of Wynn, Chuck Mathewson. Ader is looking to install Mathewson on the board.
Wynn released the following statement upon learning of the letter:
"I have known Chuck Mathewson both as a business man and as a friend for over 30 years. My various companies have done business with him during his tenure as Chairman of IGT, and we have benefitted from his expertise and the leadership he brought to the position. I have also, during all of those years, had the opportunity to discuss a wide range of business opportunities and decisions with him and have steadily increased my respect for his maturity and judgment. He is a man of wide perspective and vision.
“People who worked for him held him in the highest regard, as did every major company in the gaming industry with whom he dealt so successfully. It was during Chuck’s time at IGT that the company came into dominance as the principal supplier of slot machines in the United States. Since his departure the company has seemed to have lost that edge.
“I am personally saddened by what appears to be a paid professional attempt to smear him. I’m left with the impression that such an effort is motivated by IGT’s current management’s attempt to distract shareholder attention from current performance."
The Ader Group beneficially reportedly owns more than 100 times the IGT stock than that of the three directors it seeks to replace (excluding stock options), according to Business Insider.
The irony here is that the IGT stock price has shot up 12 percent since Ader went public with his proxy fight.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
