Party Gaming has received a significant change in company ownership now that the online gaming company's four founders - Russ DeLeon, Ruth Parasol, Vikrant Bhagarva and Anurag Dikshit, have confirmed their selling of 5% of Party Gaming total capital, valued at approximately US$431 million.  Over 200 million shares were sold, some of which also came from a fifth stock holder, Nitin Jain.  The move has come as a surprise to many, considering each shareholder was locked into an agreement to not sell any stocks until June 30.

However, some slick maneuvering by Party Gaming's stock broker, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW), was able to get all four stockholders out of the restriction.  And despite a  lower market value than what was expected, (initial speculation was that 350 million shares were seeking to be sold at 119-120p) the 200 million shares were sold at 116p.

After the announcement recently by Dikshit (Operations Director) and Bhargava (Marketing Director) they would be stepping down from the company, it became apparent there would be a selling of shares.  However, the legal maneuver around the restriction brought about sooner-than-expected results.  In order to do so, all four founders had to extend their current lock-up (which ends the last day of June) until December 31, 2006, further obligating them to a cease from selling any more shares unless a takeover was engaged, or an agreement between two shareholders both in lock-up was made.

The exact breakdown of shares went like this:  Parasol and DeLeon jointly sold .83% of joint capital (33.3 million shares) retaining a 14.87% holding in Party Gaming.  Anurag Dikshit sold 1.42 % of total capital (56.7 million shares), leaving him with nearly a 29% holding in the company still.  Vikrant Bhagarva sold the most shares (66.7 million) which was 1.67% of total issued capital, thus leaving him with a 6.96% holding in shares.  It is speculated that due to the upcoming House of Representative hearings in which the Goodlatte and Leach anti-online gambling will be presented, Party Gaming's founders were protecting their investment in case stock prices fell - as they normally do when online gambling and politics mix.