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Caesars dethroned its President and CEO Mark Frissora, leading to speculation the company may now be more open to a sale.
In after-hours trading, Caesars shares rose 9.6 percent, to $9.70. The company also announced Thursday that it had rejected the Golden Nugget casino chain’s offer to buy it in a reverse merger.
“The Board … determined that it is not consistent with the company’s plans to create and enhance shareholder value over the long term,” the gambling company said.
The move confirms an Oct. 21 exclusive in The Post.
“Consistent with its fiduciary duties, the Board continues to be open to reasonable alternatives to enhance long-term shareholder value,” the company added.
Frissora, who is leaving Feb. 8, hired Goldman Sachs to defend against shareholder activists and was seen to be largely against a sale.
The largest Caesars shareholder, Apollo Global Management, is not opposed to a sale, a source said.
Apollo in 2015 was behind Frissora’s hiring when part of Caesars was in bankruptcy.
Replacing Frissora, however, does not necessarily mean Caesars will begin a sales process.
This buys the board time to find a more popular CEO and attract institutional investors, a source with knowledge of Caesars’ thinking said.
The pop in share price on the news solidifies the belief that Frissora lacked the key support of some institutional investors, which kept them from investing in Caesars.
Sources said a possible successor is former Pinnacle Entertainment CEO Anthony Sanfilippo, who used to work at Caesars and lost his job at Pinnacle when it was sold to Penn National.
Caesars traded at $12.80 after emerging from Chapter 11 and closed on Thursday at $8.85.
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