MIXI Australia Raises the Stakes with a Higher Bid for PointsBet

MIXI Australia has once again revised its takeover offer for PointsBet amid continued challenges from competitor Betr Entertainment. MIXI, which raised its bid once again, described its latest price as “best and final.”

MIXI Has Been Eyeing PointsBet for a While

MIXI Australia, which is the Australian arm of Japanese tech giant MIXI, has been seeking to acquire PointsBet for several months. However, MIXI is not the sports betting operator’s only suitor as Betr Entertainment has had similar ambitions. As a result, the two companies have been trying to outbid each other for a while, with each adopting an entirely different approach to the negotiations.

MIXI’s proposal has been rather straightforward, with the company seeking to acquire PointsBet in an all-cash arrangement. Conversely, Betr has put an all-scrip deal on the table, trying to sway the Australian sportsbook with promises of value-generating synergies.

While PointsBet considered an earlier PointsBet bid, its leadership has largely preferred MIXI’s latest offers. In the meantime, Betr continued to insist that its offer constituted a superior proposal and rejected that its synergy forecasts are overestimated. Betr recently updated its offer, putting forward 4.22 of its own shares for each PointsBet share, which implies a value of AUD 1.35 per PointsBet share. However, the latter company ultimately reiterated its support for MIXI’s proposal.

As the race continues on, MIXI Australia has decided to solidify its lead by once again updating its takeover proposal. Now, the suitor has pulled up an AUD 1.25 per share all-cash bid. MIXI declared the offer unconditional, appealing to PointsBet’s leadership, which has rejected earlier Betr proposals due to their conditional nature and lack of cash certainty.

The unconditional nature of the deal will offer existing PointsBet shareholders almost immediate value. MIXI elaborated that it will use its best endeavors to offer payments to the shareholders within 10 business days from the acceptance of the offer.

For context, the AUD 1.25 price represents a 44.6% premium to the price of PointsBet prior to the speculation surrounding the takeover offer.

MIXI described this price as “best and final.” However, it reserved its right to potentially make changes to the offer, should it acquire a stake of over 50% in PointsBet.

PointsBet’s leadership has already accepted the latest offer and has recommended that shareholders do the same in the absence of a superior proposal.

While Betr leveraged its stake of almost 20% to block an earlier MIXI takeover attempt, the latter company has now acquired a 28.2% stake in PointsBet and is better positioned to secure the passing of its deal.