Pinnacle buys Aztar (lock stock & barrel including debt) for 2.1 billion dollars in an all-cash deal that's expected to close by late 4th quarter.

Primary reasons for doing the deal:

New company will have a presence in two largest gaming markets in the US (Las Vegas and AC) with no overlap between the two rosters...

Helps them better compete with Harrahs...

New company will have 10 million names in their combined database... roughly half the US population will live within a 300 mile radius of one of the company's properties.

Greatly enhanced promotion and cross-marketing opportunities.

Much of the press conference/announcement concerned future plans for the Tropicana. There are 34 acres in that property and the company has no plans to subdivide! So the Tropicana will be redeveloped as a single resort/casino property. The target is to have finished plans within two years, with construction to begin shortly thereafter.

Pinnacle is curently building two properties in the St. Louis area (downtown to open in '07 and St. Louis County to open in '08) and will turn their construction team loose on the Tropicana as soon as those two properties are finished.

Pinnacle's new casino at the Four Seasons Resort on Grand Exuma Island in the Bahamas will open in about two months, so new chips are on the way there!

That's about all I jotted down from the webcast.