Excapsa Software Inc, the poker software firm that powers UltimateBet, successfully floated on the London Alternative Investment Market (AIM) this week at a placing price of 110p per share. The company raised £22.4 million (net proceeds), and now has a market value of £214.2 million.
Excapsa develops, maintains and markets multi-player, real time, Internet enabled poker software. Notable members of the Excapsa poker network are the real money sites UltimateBet.com (eWorldHoldings) and UpperClassPoker (Aviation Club de France), as well as the play-for-free site CardPlayer Poker.
In a press release Jim Ryan, CEO of Excapsa, said: "We are pleased with the strong investor response to our flotation. [...] We look forward to the next stage of rapid and successful growth." Jim Ryan previously was CFO of Cryptologic when that company floated on the London Stock Exchange.
According to target figures published in The Times earlier, the money Excapsa raised with the flotation was less than originally planned though.
Excapsa intends to use the capital raised to facilitate growth through the development and/or acquisition of new gaming technologies or businesses.
Excapsa recently was involved in a legal dispute with one of it's former licensees PokerShare. The licensee, which was popular among players because of it's profit sharing policy, filed suit against Excapsa last month seeking damages of £100 million. Excapsa had shut down the PokerShare website unilaterally back in November, 2005, for reasons not clearly known.
However Excapsa recently settled the dispute with PokerShare according to a statement on the PokerShare website. PokerShare expects to be back in business in March, 2006.