Bwin management takes flak from new investor

Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment’s latest disappointing results (see previous  reports) have prompted 6.1 percent US shareholder Jason Ader to suggest that CEO Norbert Teufelberger  should assemble a more competent management team.

Ader, famed for his abrasive attacks on management in a dispute over IGT board positions last year only recently acquired his shareholding through SpringOwl, but has been quick to criticise the continued lacklustre performance of the company and its share price.

In a comment to the Telegraph newspaper this week SpringOwl voiced a number of concerns that included the appointment of Phillip Yea as chairman; the generous bonus awards paid recently to senior management despite the weak performance of the company; ineffective cost-cutting; and the alarming 40 percent decline in the share price flowing from poor business decisions.

The statement questioned whether the choices and decisions made by the Bwin.Party board are “…in line with the goal of restoring shareholder value.”

Ader contrasted Bwin.Party’s performance with that of rivals like 888, which have performed well over the same period.

Bwin.Party management seem to have gone into laager mode on Ader’s offer to sit down for a confidential discussion on how the ship might be righted, which has allegedly been rebuffed.

Teufelberger will no doubt be hearing a lot more from the notoriously aggressive and tenacious Ader, whose SpringOwl shareholding entitles him to select a director for a seat on the board, an option he has yet to exercise pending an assessment of other directors.

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