On Wednesday, eGamingReview, or EGR as it’s commonly called in the internet gambling world, published an articleclaiming, “Groupe Bernard Tapie is expected to complete its acquisition of Full Tilt Poker before the end of next week.” The two parties have been negotiating an asset sale since the end of 2011, using the U.S. Department of Justice as a middleman, and have largely stayed mute. Now, online poker players from the United States and around the world will anxiously wait to see whether the latest rumor turns out to be true.

A source close to the negotiation told PocketFives on Wednesday, “The deadline for a deal is Friday, and that is possible, but next week is more realistic in my opinion.” Tapie extended its original deadline, according to company lawyer Behn Dayanim, who told PocketFives in an exclusive interview at the end of February, “We’re still working out a lot of the details. It’s a complicated deal. The consensus was that we’d be done by today (February 29th).”

Over on Gaming Intelligence (GI), a separate article posted on Wednesday was summarized as follows: “The Bernard Tapie Groupe looks well placed to complete its agreement to buy Full Tilt Poker this week. Tapie and the owners of Full Tilt agreed to extend their deadline for completion until this Friday (March 16th) to allow for further due diligence, and sources on both sides are confident that the deadline will be met.”

PocketFives called Dayanim on Wednesday to validate the EGR and GI articles, but Dayanim responded by saying that he could not confirm either one. He also said that negotiations are ongoing, but did not specify a time line for their completion. EGR revealed that in order to get the deal done, Tapie had to bring aboard a third party: “‘Tapie is now in the throngs of closing the deal and completing his due diligence,’ explained one source, adding that ‘He has secured an [external] investor for the acquisition.'”

Who the external investor is, and how, when, and if players will be paid back, are not known.

EGR added that Tapie is in discussions with the Alderney Gambling Control Commission, which revoked the site’s license back in September, but left the door open for reinstatement should a new management team take over. Tapie is also reportedly in talks with the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which issued Full Tilt Poker a secondary operating license.

Could we see Full Tilt re-launch immediately after the deal closes, or how long would the ramp-up time be? “After [Tapie]closes with the Government, the Government still has to deal with the forfeiture proceedings, as they’re selling the assets through the court, and we were hoping that process could be quick,” the same source told EGR. The news outlet estimated that the ramp-up time to launch the new Full Tilt, or whatever the brand name would be, would be four weeks. The room is not expected to go live before April 15th, the one-year anniversary of Black Friday.

When asked about the timing of Full Tilt firing back up and players getting repaid, our source bluntly told us, “No one knows the timing yet.”

To say that members of PocketFives have been growing impatient with the situation would be an understatement. “It’s all nonsense,” wrote one PocketFiver in a Poker Sites thread covering the EGR and GI articles. “I’ll buy in once it’s confirmed that the sale is final. Until then, all the talk means nothing.”

Last week, Full Tilt front man Ray Bitar (pictured), one of 11 individuals indicted on Black Friday, apologized to the online poker community for his silence. “My love for the sport and the poker community has made it very difficult to keep silent, particularly in light of the many angry sentiments directed at FTP, myself, and others in newspapers and blogs,” Bitar told Poker Strategy in an exclusive interview. “Given the lack of information that has been made public, I can certainly understand these sentiments.”

The sale of Full Tilt has been marred by a variety of problems, including the U.S. Government labeling Full Tilt a “global Ponzi scheme,” nearly $17 million being owed to the now-dormant site by professional poker players, and a lack of public communication by all parties involved. We’ll continue to keep you posted on the latest updates right here on PocketFives.