EA makes bid for Take-Two

M

MAGNeT

Skilled
Give us your Grant Theft Auto

In a surprise move Electronic Arts had made an unsolicited offer to purchase Take-Two Interactive Software, the publisher of the highly successful Grant Theft Audio video games franchise. EA reportedly is offering Take-Two a deal worth approximately $2 billion, or $26 per share. This offer comes on the heels of an earlier offer that EA made Take-Two of $25 per share, which offer expired last Friday. EA has said that it will hold a conference on Monday morning, February 26th, to discuss the offer.

Grand Theft Auto IV is due to be released in April of this year and presumably will have huge profits, as have its other games. Its series of games have become progressively violent and scandalous, according to some in U.S. Congress who are pushing for more oversight and internal control of the games’ content, to the point of removal from shelves of video stores. Takeover by EA could work in Take-Two’s favor, in that EA has a reputation for more morality in its games and control of content, a definite PR advantage that Take-Two shareholders could benefit from.

And, EA has a huge distribution network and marketing machine already in place that Take-Two does not have. EA is definitely wooing the shareholders with its buyout offer and intends to exert maximum pressure on the Board of Directors of Take-Two to accept the offer. However, Take-Two is in stable financial condition and is not really in any dire straits to be acquired.

It will be interesting to watch what happens.
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Fudzilla - EA makes bid for Take-Two
 
EA launches hostile bid for Take-Two



ake-Two Interactive has publicly rejected a $2bn bid from Electronic Arts, claiming that its rival is trying to buy it out cheaply.

The bid values Take-Two at twice its current stock market quotation and has been under discussion for months.

Electronic Arts went public with the offer on 24 February so that it could appeal directly to shareholders.

"There can be no certainty that in the future EA or any other buyer would pay the same high premium we are offering today," EA chief executive John Riccitiello said in a letter published on 24 February.

However it took just a day for Take-Two's board to strike back with a damning critique of the bid.

"The board has determined that EA's proposal substantially undervalues Take-Two's robust and enviable stable of game franchises, exceptional creative talent and strong consumer loyalty," said Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick.

"We believe EA's unsolicited offer is highly opportunistic and is attempting to take advantage of our upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto IV, one of the most valuable and durable franchises in the industry.

"Furthermore, the offer values the company at a significant discount to its public peers and does not compensate Take-Two for its intrinsic value and the substantial synergies that the proposed combination would create."

The last part of the statement refers to increasing consolidation in the gaming marketplace following Vivendi's purchase of Activision in December for $1.7bn.
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EA launches hostile bid for Take-Two - vnunet.com
 
Normally I would be the first person to grab my torch and pitchfork for an EA lynching but to be quite honest EA has (over the past one year) released (published) better games than most other publishers out there put together.

Having said that still haven't forgiven the bastards for teh Bioware take over.
 
saumilsingh said:
Obviously, math is on their side.
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Yeah fair point but still I would say its almost the in thing now to hate EA.

Classic case in point FIFA 08 (the Xbox 360 and PS 3 version, forget the god awful PC and PS2 ports) which is still said to be just a shiny game with no depth where as Pro evo is the real football simulation.

Actually anyone who has played FIFA 08 this year will probably agree that its actually more realistic simulation of football than Pro evo. And thats coming from a die hard Pro EVO fan since the days of ISS on SNES from Konami. The ball physics, the team AI etc are far superior than Pro evo 2008.

Same goes for Skate. EA could have so easily gone the way of Tony hawk and just copied the formula but they choose to begin from scratch with a genuinely innovative control scheme and Skate actually makes TH look redundant.

So yeah they are doing OK AFAIC.
 
If you want F1 on PC and are willing to overcome the slight learning curve of a realistic simulation, there are an incredible amount of rFactor mods to chose from.
The graphics aren't nex-gen, but they are still really good. Oh, and it's all community made and FREE (you just have to buy rFactor).



Also as far as I know, currently nobody owns the F1 license. Sony's deal expired this year.
 
Params7 said:
M$ can take over Yahoo, then the world, but if EA takes over 2K, I'll kill somebody.
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You and me both!

If they get 2k..then I can say goodbye to sid meier games as well as the GTA series.Wonder whose next on their list after 2k and ubisoft...THQ??
 
If EA buys 2k, we'll see a GTA release every year...the game will be the same but the names will be GTA 2008, GTA 2009, GTA 2010 etc...
 
montylee said:
If EA buys 2k, we'll see a GTA release every year...the game will be the same but the names will be GTA 2008, GTA 2009, GTA 2010 etc...
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i definitely wouldnt mind a GTA release every year...
 
Pachter: EA will acquire Take-Two

Wedbush Morgan Securities' right-more-often-than-not analyst Michael Pachter believes that in the end EA will acquire Take-Two. Pachter prognosticates that EA will continue working angles for a takeover and is doing so to stop Take-Two's sports franchises, which he estimates will cost EA $150 million in operating profit this year. On Sunday it became public that EA was looking to gobble up Take-Two for $2 billion dollars, Take-Two quickly responded saying it wasn't interested. If EA does not acquire Take-Two then Pachter believes EA will attempt to purchase hire key personnel on teams like Rockstar and make its own version of Grand Theft Auto.

Even if EA were to gain the rights to the GTA franchise and key people like the Housers were to quit, Pachter imagines the GTA series would still make around $150 million every year even without Rockstar North as developer; although he admits if Rockstar North were still in charge of the franchise it would make about $600 million every other year. There's still much more info to pop out of this rabbit hole of acquisition soon -- time to work on our Ferengi post images.
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Pachter: EA will acquire Take-Two - Joystiq

So EA will acquire another studio screw it altogether and then disband it. Juts like it killed westwood & bullfrog. Great !
 
indrajeet1811 said:
i definitely wouldnt mind a GTA release every year...
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I am not sure that can happen as it seems Rockstar North guys have agreements with Take two that can enable them to jump out of this acquisition.. Besides, an EA purchase of rockstar is goin to ensure more of ingame adverts and more of censoring *ahem*.. :p
 
EA has competition for Take-Two

Other offers made

EA's attempted $2 billion takeover of Grand Theft Auto publisher, Take-Two, might not be a done deal, according to the Wall Street Journal.

SEC filings show that Take-Two claims it has received other offers, but has spurned those, as well, as the original $2 billion offer EA made. Take-Two quickly issued its own announcement, saying it thought EA's offer was too small and that it would prefer to wait to have any negotiations with anyone until after the April 29 release of Grand Theft Auto IV.

EA wanted the deal done before GTA IV's premiere. Its interest is at least partly in response to the recent acquisition of Activision by Vivendi. It is not clear who else is making offers to Take-Two.
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Fudzilla
 
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