Park Place Entertainment Corporation (NYSE: PPE) announced today that its Board of Directors has approved a common stock repurchase program to acquire up to 12 million shares of the Company’s outstanding shares. The authorization became effective today and will remain in place until terminated by further action by the Board.
The Board determined that it is in the best interests of the Corporation to authorize this program to purchase shares of the common stock from time to time for the purpose, among other things, of meeting existing and future obligations of the corporation under employee stock option and other benefit programs.

The Company’s previous authorization for 8 million shares was satisfied in April 2000. Since the end of the first quarter, Park Place Entertainment purchased approximately 1 million shares of its stock at an average price of $12.60.

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