Playtech CEO critical of pressure to make acquisitions

Mor Weizer, the seasoned and respected CEO of online gambling group Playtech plc, gave an insight into just one of the pressures top management can face from shareholders this week in his address to the World GES conference in Spain.

Discussing the industry trend toward consolidation, Weizer revealed that there is sometimes inappropriate pressure on chief executive officers to make acquisitions for the wrong reasons in pursuit of headlines and short term share boosts.

“There is some pressure on CEOs to do deals, which is not right,” he said. “It’s typically CEOs of listed companies with money in the bank [who are affected], but they are constantly being asked when the next transaction is going to happen and what firms they are looking at.”

The correct way to approach acquisitions, Weizer suggested, was to clearly and objectively assess how much real value and diversity a target acquisition can add to an enterprise, and then have a comprehensive execution and integration plan post-acquisition to extract full value from any deal.

Weizer should know…over the past decade Playtech has successfully made 28 relevant and high value acquisitions, and he says the company has always taken a conservative and thorough approach…it considered fifty or more businesses over the past year alone, he revealed.

He predicted that in the current business and regulatory environment merger and acquisition activity is likely to continue on an international basis, although there was the immediate risk that the UK Brexit vote could induce some caution in parts of the market..

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