Online Travel Pioneers To Purchase Golden Nugget Hotel/Casinos

LAS VEGAS— Timothy Poster and Thomas Breitling, the entrepreneurs who founded the travel website Travelscape.com, announced plans to purchase the Golden Nugget hotel-casinos in downtown Las Vegas and Laughlin, NV, from MGM MIRAGE for approximately $215 million. Poster and Breitling are the founders of Poster Financial Group, Inc. (PFG), which they are using as a vehicle to enter the Las Vegas casino market. The acquisition of both Golden Nugget properties is being funded in part by PFG, which has received a financing commitment from Lehman Brothers, subject to customary conditions. Lehman Brothers acted as the exclusive financial advisor to PFG on the acquisition. “The Golden Nugget properties are extremely attractive investment opportunities and we are very excited about entering the gaming industry. We are firm believers in the continued strength, stability and growth potential of the Nevada tourist market, and downtown Las Vegas specifically,” said Breitling, PFGs president. “The Golden Nugget has done a great job throughout its history of filling rooms with high quality customers and we believe that by combining an old-fashioned way of dealing with people with the efficiencies of modern technology for room distribution, we will be able to improve upon this track record,” continued Breitling. “We will also capitalize on the investments made by MGM MIRAGE into renovations and refurbishments and use a more targeted approach to marketing to further drive growth.” The current management team of the Golden Nugget properties, President Maurice Wooden, CFO Dawn Allen and VP, General Counsel Joanne Beckett are expected to join PFG as Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer and VP, General Counsel, respectively. Andre Carrier is expected to remain with PFG as the president of the Golden Nugget in Laughlin and Patrick Wisnicky is expected to remain as the CFO of the Laughlin property. Poster and Breitling have no immediate plans to change the hotels theme or décor. Before establishing PFG, Poster and Breitling launched a Las Vegas-based hotel reservation business that evolved into Travelscape.com. Poster and Breitling eventually sold Travelscape.com to Expedia in 2000.