Icahn's Sands Casino Ends Bid to Buy Bankrupt Claridge Casino.

(Bloomberg) -- Financier Carl Icahn's Sands Hotel & Casino said it ended its bid to buy the bankrupt Claridge Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, after the state cleared Park Place Entertainment Inc.'s proposed purchase.

GB Holdings Inc., the parent company of the Sands, pulled out after it determined that a competitive bid for the Claridge would require a ``significant cash component,'' the company said in a press release issued by PRNewswire. GB offered to acquire the Claridge for about $81.6 million mostly in stock, while Park Place offered about $75 million of cash and assumed debt to bondholders.

Sands and Park Place submitted competing bids for the casino last year in U.S. bankruptcy court in Camden, New Jersey. The state's Casino Control Commission ruled this week that the purchase of the Claridge by Park Place, the world's largest gaming company, wouldn't result in ``undue economic concentration'' in Atlantic City -- the nation's second largest casino market.

Last year Icahn outbid Park Place for the Sands in another bankruptcy. The Claridge sits between the Sand's and Park Place's Bally's casino.