The Financial Times reported Thursday that Caesars Entertainment is weighing takeover offers, and cited a potential bid from Texas billionaire Tilman Fertitta, who currently is serving as U.S. ambassador to Italy.
The publication said the news sets the stage “for a potential buyout of one of the jewels of the Las Vegas Strip.”
The Financial Times report said Caesars is exploring a sale “after receiving takeover interest from several potential bidders including Fertitta Entertainment, the group behind the Golden Nugget casino chain.”
The story also said Caesars is considering a possible management-led buyout as well.
“Talks are ongoing but a transaction is far from a foregone conclusion, the people cautioned. It is possible the talks could collapse,” the story noted in citing sources.
Caesars and Fertitta did not return calls to comment. Fertitta is a major shareholder in Wynn Resorts.
“In order to cover the huge debt and lease liabilities facing Caesars, any acquisition would likely involve a large financing package from Wall Street banks, which would make the likelihood of a deal materializing much trickier,” the Financial Times article said.
Shares of Caesars stock jumped from $21.72 to a close of $24.74 after the Financial Times story broke Thursday afternoon. The stock is down $8.51 over the last year with a 52-week high of $34.68 and low of $17.86. The company has a market cap of more than $5 billion.
Caesars, which was acquired by El Dorado Resorts in a 2020 merger of the two groups, has a debt load of more than $20 billion including lease payments, giving it an enterprise value above $30 billion, the Financial Times reported.
“If a deal materialises, it would mark one of the biggest gaming takeovers in years,” the publication noted. “Caesars’ annual free cash flow of more than $3 billion makes the company an attractive asset to any potential buyer, the people said. Caesars’ recent struggles have for the second time drawn the attention of Wall Street’s most famed activist investor Carl Icahn. Its board was expanded last year to add two representatives from Icahn Enterprises as part of a brokered peace with him.”
The publication cited how Icahn sought out a change of strategy at Caesars in 2019, a move that helped precipitate the El Dorado transaction.
The Financial Times noted how the Reno-based operator is led by CEO Tom Reeg who was a one-time junk bond trader.
Caesars operates more than 50 casinos across North America using the Caesars, Harrah’s, Horseshoe, and El Dorado brands.
Private equity groups Apollo and TPG bought the company, then known as Harrah’s, in 2008 for $30 billion just as the global financial crisis was beginning, the story noted. In 2015, Caesars filed for bankruptcy.
As part of the restructuring, Caesars properties were spun off to Vici with the operator leasing them back.
“A surge in interest in gaming stocks during the Covid-19 pandemic, as gamblers were spending heavily online while stuck at home, boosted Caesars’ market value to roughly $24 billion, but it has since fallen more than 80% from its highs,” the story said.
In its fourth quarter earnings report earlier this month, Caesars reported gains in net revenue and adjusted earnings led by a strong showing in its digital segment.
In the fourth quarter, Caesars reported net revenues of $2.9 billion versus $2.8 billion for the comparable prior-year period. Las Vegas revenue fell 3.4% from $1.08 billion to $1.04 billion. Regional revenue rose 4% from $1.34 billion to $1.39 billion.
Same-store adjusted EBITDA was $901 million versus $882 million for the comparable prior-year period. It fell 6.5% in Las Vegas and 1.5% at regional properties.
The CEO of Caesars Entertainment said Tuesday there’s “no crisis” on the Las Vegas Strip, which he claims is holding up “quite well,” and that the fourth quarter improvement – a top-four result in the company’s history – is continuing into the first quarter, auguring well for 2026.
Reeg told Wall Street analysts during the earnings call that Caesars is coming off a soft summer in Las Vegas because of a decline in leisure travel. It remains soft but is not as pronounced as it was over the summer.
Group business helped fill in the fourth quarter, and Reeg expects that to offset leisure travel in the first quarter. Group business picks up even more in the second quarter, and he said he feels good about the rest of the year. The one unknown is how leisure travel will be during the summer, considering that was the issue in 2025.
What’s happening in Las Vegas with a 7.5% decline in visitation in 2025 is a “normal economic cycle activity in leisure,” Reeg said. Drive-in traffic from California was down in 2025 as people stayed closer to home, and visitation from Canada was down.