Lottomatica SpA, the company that runs Italy’s national lottery, agreed to buy GTECH Holdings Corp., the world’s biggest seller of computerized lottery systems, for about 4 billion euros ($4.8 billion), Bloomberg News reported.
Lottomatica is offering $35 in cash for each GTECH share, or 4.5 percent more than Monday’s closing price, Rome-based Lottomatica and West Greenwich, R.I.-based GTECH said in a joint statement to the Italian Exchange Tuesday, according to Bloomberg.
The Italian lottery company will finance the acquisition by selling shares and bonds and taking out a bank loan, the company said.
Bloomberg reported that De Agostini SpA, an Italian publishing and insurance company, controls Lottomatica.
