Online gaming group in €115m deal

ONLINE gaming group PartyGaming is close to announcing a £100 million (€115m) deal to buy Cashcade, owner of the foxybingo.com web site, a source said yesterday.

The source, confirming a story in the Sunday Times, said PartyGaming was likely to pay an initial sum of around £75m followed by a further £25m depending on the performance of Cashcade in 2009 and 2010.

PartyGaming declined to comment.

The deal, which is expected to be announced in the next two days, would be a boost for indebted newspaper publisher Independent News & Media, which owns a near-20% stake in Cashcade and is looking to sell assets to raise money.

Meanwhile, Independent News & Media won’t meet a July 24 deadline for a deal with banks and bondholders and will seek an extension of at least another month, the Sunday Times reported, without saying where it got the information.

The company has made progress in its planned asset sales and received expressions of interest at about €100m for its South African outdoor advertising business, the newspaper said.