In breaking news Tuesday morning, rumors are swirling around the internet that PokerStars has bought Full Tilt for what is rumored to be $750 million. Chili Poker CEO Alex Dreyfus posted on Twitter on Tuesday, “PokerStars buys Full Tilt for a consideration of $750M, including settlement with DOJ and full balances of players ($330M). I’m impressed.”

PocketFives reached out to Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) legal counsel Behn Dayanim, who told us that a statement would be released “shortly,” but could not confirm or deny the news. PokerStars Head of Home Games Lee Jones told PocketFives that he did not know the specifics of any rumored transaction between the world’s largest online poker room and what was once its chief contender.

iGamingFrance (IGF) Tweeted on Tuesday that GBT had told the poker news site that the deal with Full Tilt, which was originally announced last September, is now off: “Laurent Tapie confirms deal is off for FTP buyout, insinuates external sabotage over DOJ negotiations. More to follow.” IGF also confirmed that a statement is reportedly due out later today: “Just spoken to Laurent Tapie re: Stars-FTP buyout, no comment, he’ll put out a release later today.”

eGamingReview (EGR) published an article around Noon ET on Tuesday confirming that the GBT deal with Full Tilt had fallen through. EGR sourced a GBT statement as reading in part, “We understand from press reports that the DOJ may have entered into an agreement with PokerStars pursuant to which PokerStars will acquire the FTP assets. If accurate, we can only assume that PokerStars determined that it was willing to accept these legal and financial risks in order to resolve its own legal situation with DOJ.”

PokerStars and Full Tilt left the U.S. market on Black Friday. PokerStars immediately paid U.S. players back, while Full Tilt has failed to do so.

Over on TwoPlusTwo, “NoahSD” posted, “I don’t know if this is actually true or not, and I’m no longer in the business of researching this stuff. However, I got unsolicited contacts from a number of old sources saying that this thread is worth keeping open, so I’m keeping it open.”

An affiliate source at PokerStars told PocketFives on Tuesday, “I have not heard anything about this at all.”

On Twitter, poker players responded positively to the prospects of being able to be reunited with their Full Tilt funds. Sean WormNortonGetzwiller, a World Series of Poker bracelet winner and former PocketFives Podcast guest, chimed in, “PS buying FTP and making a deal w/DOJ… Could be brilliant if it also leaves the door open to come back to the US… MGM/Harrahs should be worried.”

Longtime online poker player Mike SowersUNCC Sowers (pictured) wasn’t holding his breath, but Tweeted, “Pretty unbelievable if true… #wontbeholdingmybreath #yogatimestill.”

On PocketFives, a Poker Sites thread included discussion of whether TwoPlusTwo’s Mods leaving up that forum’s thread about the deal was a good sign: “PokerStars reps viewing the thread and have yet to deny it. Plus, many sources telling the Mods they’re not to delete the thread. Seems like there might actually be some truth behind the rumor.”

Jim Mr_BigQueso Collopy was relieved to hear that the rumored PokerStars buyout of Full Tilt contains player refunds in full: “If #pokerstars is really buying out #fulltiltpoker, hats off. Perfect timing, considerably impressive strategically, and atypically classy.”

The original deal between GBT and Full Tilt called for the U.S. Department of Justice to cover U.S. player refunds. This deal, contrastingly, appears to amount to PokerStars refunding all player balances.

We’ll keep you posted on this still-breaking story.