Electronic Arts presses on with Take-Two takeover

By Ed Oswald | Published February 25, 2008, 12:04 PM

EA is pressing on with its efforts to acquire its rival, Take-Two, saying that its offer is likely the best one the smaller company will get.

EA has already sent two offers to the company, both of which have been turned down by the Take-Two's board. Its next step will be to release the details of the proposal to generate some grassroots shareholder support for its efforts.

The current proposal calls for an offer of $26 per share, a 64 percent premium to Take-Two's closing price the day before the offer was made. That values the transaction at some $2 billion USD.

In an effort to speed the process, EA urged the company to quickly approve the deal so additional marketing power can be put behind the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV, to be released April 29.

However, Take-Two responded that such a claim was "opportunistic," and brushed it aside.

2007 was a rough year for Take-Two: a shareholder revolt caused a management shakeup in March, followed by the convictions of some of its former executives for stock option backdating.

Additionally, it found itself fighting to keep Manhunt 2 on store shelves, with the British Board of Film Classification banning its sale in the UK.

Comments

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I had to laugh at this: "so additional marketing power can be put behind the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV"

here's how you market it: "GTA 4, PS3 and XBox360, April 29th"

Done and done.

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need for sprred may be popular but the game is looking worse and worse each time around. I loved EA back in the 90's but sense they been big there game are getting worse and worse. an example is tiger woods golf the only good game out of that series was the 2005 version IMO. If anyone thinks EA is still good there blind and do not know what is a good game anymore.

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I agree, I used to love the series but I don't even bother with it anymore. They just keep releasing the same ricer style street racer over and over now. Then again that's pretty much true of all their games, especially the sports games. Just slap a new year on the title and release it.

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I actually enjoyed NFS up until thye butchered it with Pro Street.

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More good games soon going bad. EA stinks up the room. They make crap games so either buy out the competition or make a deal so no one make a competing game. Nice

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Sad day indeed these smaller game companies often have the best games and ideas. When EA tries and gobble them up it serves as the death to the game really. I am sure the ones who suffer are the gamers in this instance.

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This is troubling. First Bioware/Pandemic and now they are going after Take-Two. EA is doing this, because Activision kicked them in the teeth with the Blizzard merger. I am curious to see if Sony or MS will sit this one out. BTW: Don't forget Ubisoft is also in the cross hair of EA. They have been trying to fend EA off forever. (EA owns a stake in Ubisoft it has increased it over time).

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The EA sports franchise is dwindling ... EA games are mediocre when compared to REAL games.

Me thinks EA needs Take-Two more than the vicer-verser.

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EA has some of the best games on the market there Wicketr. BattleField and Need4Speed the whole series are great games, Carbon and Black Edition are a couple of my favs...

EA far from sux in my book.

Have a good one :o)

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Bwahahaha
They have no decent programers
Their games ARE mediocre in comparison.

This is an attempt at trying to compete but every video game company knows that a takeover by this company means shotty games at best. IF it does happen I would expect to see people leaving and creation of a new company or joining a company which is worth while.

EA games have been taking an extreme downfall. Battlefield was horrible. N4S was a decent game until they stated tooling around with it too much and their sports games lack UI.

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...and yet somehow all of those games remain *insanely* popular.

You think it sucks. In your opinion it is mediocre compared to the rest.

That's fine.

To try and pass that off as fact instead of opinion ("They ARE mediocre") is pure BS.

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Their games are blotted pigs with no innovation. A game like battlefield that you can't even blow up buildings is pathetic. Their collision detection sucks big time. How many times playing battlefield could you kill someone because their leg was coming out of a cement wall. Then add in the terrible vehicles. A tank gets blocked by a small tree. Yeah that is a good game alright. EA = shi% code plain and simple.

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How so?
I remember seeing other production companies recieving game of the year awards for the last 2 - 3 years. IF these games that this company produces are soo dazzling then why are they not winning any awards?

As i recall my collection has Activision games and a valve game (EA can take no credit for Orange box(outside of their crappy porting over to the POS3 because of lack of interest on their part to have anything to do with that console))
Tell me a game that surpass anything produced by any other company this year and perhaps you may sway my opinion.

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You misunderstand.

I am not trying to sway your opinion. I am simply telling you that your opinion != fact.

The *huge* community around all things NFS alone should tell you that.

Your collection is your collection. It's purely anecdotal, as is my collection containing several valve games, every NFS ever released, and countless others.

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I agree that in the past the NFS collection was well put together. The latest edition of NFS lacks in comparison.

This is a forum for opinions and despite your love for the company that is EA you do have to admit that it is not shared by the rest of the gaming community.

Which has been proven by game of the year awards in which EA has not been awarded.

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So...

Which has been proven by game of the year awards in which EA has not been awarded.

Only 1 game per year is good?

Interesting...

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If we get down to the brass tax
They used to be good.
Now they suck.

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...in your opinion. :)

(And it's "brass tacks")

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Ohh i remember when a hummer or tank could get cut to shreds by barbed wire.

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an opinion shared by many it seems.
;)
Don't really care about the spelling about tacks.

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I share your opinion for what it is worth. Ea has been living on their name and that only.

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an opinion shared by many it seems.

Purely anecdotal. The fact that they haven't won a game of the year award doesn't make then crap, it just makes them "not the game of the year".

There's many more folks than those posting here who greatly enjoy these games on the NFS fan sites, if you wanna play games with anecdotal "evidence".

Don't really care about the spelling about tacks.

Didn't think so, but provided the correct spelling just in case.

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EA is desperate. Take Two can wait as long as they want. They aren't a company going in the hole, and EA sucks. What's the rush?

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and EA sucks.

NFS. Huge money maker. Very popular series.

Hardly "in the Hole"....

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I am sure their stock holders are complaning because of the lack of superior games in comparison of what is out on the gaming market. They are looking at this take over to help them acheive something this year as their game lineup is bleak at best.

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Need For Speed: San Andreas = The end of Modern Civilization.

Meh...never much cared for modern civilization anyway....

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