There has been a lot of speculation in recent days about the status of Groupe Bernard Tapie‘s acquisition of Full Tilt Poker. The troubled online poker room, which had its license revokedlast September and faces allegations of its executives running a Ponzi scheme, is in the midst of a complicated asset transaction that has dragged on. We’re now nearly a year removed from Black Friday, and Full Tilt players from the United States and around the world still haven’t been reunited with their bankrolls.

Last week, poker pro Matt Glantz declared it was inevitable that Tapie would back out of the deal. This week, PocketFives sat down with Tapie legal counsel Behn Dayanim to see whether the deal was indeed dead or if it was on the verge of being finalized.

Dayanim opened by saying that although he had not read Glantz’ blog, “The Tapie group is committed to trying to make this deal work. We wouldn’t have spent the time, effort, and money if there weren’t a desire to do so. I’m reasonably confident that we can bring this to a full conclusion. We are optimistic that we’ll be able to get this done.”

So what’s the holdup? As the deal currently stands, the U.S. Government will likely serve as the intermediary between Full Tilt and Tapie, which has possibly complicated matters. The relative silence by the parties involved has also created an atmosphere of doubt that the $80 million sale will actually occur.

“Just because people are not aware of what is happening does not mean that nothing is happening,” Dayanim told PocketFives. “There are a lot of actions that are required to make this deal happen. We can’t share those actions publicly, however, although I know people want to know. We can’t conduct negotiations in public. It’s not possible. We have not made public statements because we prefer to get the deal done, do the work, and show a result.”

One of the concerns Glantz raised was the possibility that Tapie was pursuing Full Tilt in order to raise awareness of its International Stadiums Poker Tour, or ISPT. The mammoth live event in London has received quite a bit of press due to its parent company, Groupe Bernard Tapie, engaging in negotiations with what was once the second largest online poker room on Earth.

However, Dayanim contended that Tapie’s pursuit of Full Tilt is independent: “The Tapie group has undertaken this acquisition because it wants to acquire the assets of Full Tilt. That’s the motivation. That’s the reason for the substantial time commitment.”

He added, “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).” As you probably know, over the last several weeks, our industry has been abuzz with talk of a March 1st restart of Full Tilt Poker, but those rumors failed to come to fulfillment.

What about the $17 million allegedly due to Full Tilt by pros like Phil Ivey (pictured) and Barry Greenstein? Has that hurdle, which has created quite a bit of consternation in the poker community, been cleared?

“We’re still discussing the players’ debts,” Tapie’s lawyer shared. “I have nothing new to report on that. It’s still an issue. We’re still trying to work through it. The parties are sufficiently confident that we can get this done, and we’ve all agreed to extend the time line by a few weeks. We originally wanted to reach closure on the deal by February 29th, but no one wants to throw in the towel, so we’ve agreed to extend it by a few weeks.”

Finally, PocketFives wanted to know whether any other suitors have come forward expressing interest in purchasing Full Tilt, or any of its assets, should the deal with Tapie fall through. “Not that I’m aware of,” Dayanim responded. “It’s fair to say that if this deal doesn’t happen, nothing’s going to get done. This is the only option on the table.”

We’ll keep you posted on this ever-developing story.