The Board of World Poker Tour Enterprises this week named Scott Friedman
the new Chief Financial Officer of the company. Friedman moves up
from his position as Vice President of Finance and Corporate Controller
at WPTE to take over the position formerly held by W. Todd Steele,
who has moved on to a private equity firm. Steele will depart his
position on October 30th to ensure a smooth transition in the position
with WPTE.
Friedman has been with WPTE since 2004 following his departure from
Sony Pictures Entertainment. He began his career with Arthur Anderson
as a Certified Public Accountant.
"Scott has been a valuable member of our team since we
took WPTE public and has been instrumental in helping grow the business
over the last few years," said Steve Lipscomb, Founder
and Chief Executive Officer of WPTE. "Todd has been a strong
member of our management team, and we wish him well in his new endeavor.
WPTE has become a fundamentally strong organization, with bench strength
across our financial operations. As a result, we were able to promote
from within, allowing us to seamlessly transition as we continue to
grow our businesses and build shareholder value."
WPTE management took the opportunity to also announce that the company
has divested its stock holdings in PokerTek, Inc. PokerTek has developed
the PokerPro hybrid poker table which merges computer technology with
live game play (see previous InfoPowa reports) and WPTE had held approximately
450 000 shares of the company's stock. The divestiture is expected
to earn WPTE approximately $4.5 million for their third quarter 2006
fiscal year report.
Commenting on the sale, Lipscomb said, "We are pleased
with the value that we have generated for our shareholders through
our investment in PokerTek. We believe this is a good example of leveraging
our brand and position in the poker marketplace to create successful
partnerships. We expect to utilize the proceeds from the stock sale
to further build our core media and online gaming businesses."