They abruptly ended the meeting and threw Baazov out on the street. If a CEO in the history of capitalism had ever managed to sell equity for such a sky-high premium, the top minds at Blackstone’s credit group had never heard of it. Despite Amaya’s stock trading at just under $7, he wanted Blackstone and other investors to buy shares at nearly $18 apiece and securities convertible into Amaya stock at about $21. Operating like he held all the cards, Baazov proposed what would seem to be a crackpot scheme. With the backing of Blackstone’s credit division he wanted to stage the $4.9 billion purchase of PokerStars, the world’s biggest online poker company.
At 33, Baazov was the little-known chief of Amaya, an obscure Montreal company with a loose handful of assets in the gambling industry. Earlier this year, David Baazov walked into the Manhattan offices of the Blackstone Group, the world’s biggest private equity firm, with an outrageous offer.
