March 11 (Reuters) - Billionaire Tilman Fertitta has been in exclusive talks to buy Caesars Entertainment for roughly $7 billion after he topped a competing offer from billionaire investor Carl Icahn's firm, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Fertitta's company, Fertitta Entertainment, has been discussing paying around $34 a share for the gaming company, the report said.
Caesars Entertainment declined to comment on the report, while Tilman Fertitta
did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The per-share offer represents about a 17% upside on Caesars' Wednesday closing share price of $29.07.
An announcement between the two sides is not imminent, and it is possible the talks won't result in any deal, the WSJ report added.
The casino operator has reported a net loss for four consecutive quarters, hurt by softening visitor numbers in Las Vegas — which fell significantly in 2025.
Tilman Fertitta, the billionaire owner of the Golden Nugget Casinos and basketball team Houston Rockets, had approached Caesars in 2018 about merging it with his own gaming empire.
In 2019, Caesars replaced three of its board members, in line with activist investor and billionaire Carl Icahn, who had then built a 9.78% stake in the company and pressured to sell the company as a whole.
(Reporting by Parth Chandna; Editing by Alan Barona)
