An $8.6 billion deal to take the casino and hospitality empire of Tilman Fertitta public ended last week when Fertitta paid $33 million as a settlement to end the agreement. Fast Acquisitions, a special purpose acquisition company formed last year, would have taken Fertitta’s Golden Nugget casinos, Landry’s restaurants brands and 50 percent of his online gaming company, Golden Nugget Online Gaming to the stock market.
But when Fast failed to meet the December 1 deadline to complete the deal, Fertitta pulled out. But Fast said the deadline was not met because Fertitta’s executives failed to deliver documents on time. So Fertitta made the settlement to end the agreement.
“At the end of the day we ultimately determined that the right decision for my company was to remain private at this time,” Fertitta said in a statement. “I look forward to continuing to grow our business.”
Fast Acquisition, led by Ruby Tuesday founder Sandy Beall, said it would continue to look for a partner and that the settlement gives it more time to make another deal.
