EA Attempting To Purchase Take Two For $2 Billion

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DouglasMcc

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Take Two's board rejected the initial offer, forcing EA to go hostile:

EA's proposal was contained in a letter sent on Feb. 19th by EA Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello to Strauss Zelnick, Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Take-Two. The Take-Two Board's subsequent rejection of the EA proposal led to EA's decision to release the letter and bring its proposal to the attention of all Take-Two shareholders.

Mr. Riccitiello said today: "Our all-cash proposal is a unique opportunity for Take-Two shareholders to realize immediate value at a substantial premium, while creating long-term value for EA shareholders. Take-Two's game designers would also benefit from EA's financial resources, stable, game-focused management team, and strong global publishing capabilities."

The EA letter warned that further Take-Two delay in accepting EA's proposal could prevent Take-Two's shareholders and other constituents from realizing its benefits. "There can be no certainty that in the future EA or any other buyer would pay the same high premium we are offering today," Mr. Riccitiello wrote. The letter added that timely completion of the proposed transaction would allow EA's strong publishing and distribution network to positively impact the ongoing post-launch sales of GTA IV and support the new Take-Two titles scheduled for launch later in the year and during the holiday selling season.

https://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/36984/EA-Attempting-To-Purchase-Take-Two-For-2-Billion#comments


How does this make any sense? Oh well, they do say Satan works in mysterious ways ... wait, that doesn't sound right? :lol

As if R* didn't have enough to deal with with crazies like Jack Thompson. Now EA execs giving them 9 months to pump out Grand Theft Auto '09. Cause EA is all about the quality ... I didn't sound too sarcastic did I?
 
God, PLEASE don't let this happen. It was bad enough that they purchased Pandemic and BioWare!

I ****ing hate EA. They won't be happy until they own a complete and total monopoly over the industry.

:emperor

Don't do it, Take Two! For the love of all that is holy!!
 
$2 Billion?!? :google For a video game developer? wow.

That may sound like a lot, but Take Two (and esp. R*) is a very prominent company ... and not just for the Hot Coffee scandal. They have risen from the ashes and look to make a mint with GTA 4. The only reason EA is pushing to buy them now, is they realize that Take Two stock will soar once GTA comes out in April. Why else would they go for a hostile takeover when T2 asked to wait til April 30 (the day AFTER GTA 4 releases) to start negotiations? EA is the devil. They ruined NFL games with their exclusivity contract and they will run Take 2 into the ground quality wise too. Please stay strong Take 2 ... resist the D(EA)vil.
 
They just want to own everything, don't they?

Thing is, when they buy companies, it seems as if all the games that come out are much more sunpar than they used to be. Things like the next Mass Effect will may no no longer be 360 exclusive, and, well, just lack the quality of the earlier games.

EA stinks... more often than not.
 
Take-Two's game designers would also benefit from EA's financial resources, stable, game-focused management team, and strong global publishing capabilities."


They seem to be doing pretty good without all that so far don't they.
 
I dont mind that they bought Bioware, AS LONG AS THEY LET BIOWARE DO BUISNESS AS THEY ALLWAYS HAVE!
I do not think EA is stupid enough to wreck a cash cow, as long as they give bioware money, take a share of the profits, and slap their logo on the package, it's ok. But if they start trying to make Bioware conform to their buisness model, then the company is dead.
One of the reasons that Bioware makes as good of games as they do, is that they do not adhere 100% to release dates, and follow more of a "it's done when it's done" mentality.
EA treats release dates like the word of god, and will release a game, even it it's not completely finised on the date they said. this results in some seriously crappy games.
 
I dont mind that they bought Bioware, AS LONG AS THEY LET BIOWARE DO BUISNESS AS THEY ALLWAYS HAVE!

They won't.

I don't care what rhetoric they spout. The fact that BioWare went from a private company to being owned by EA and will have to answer to their executives and stakeholders alone will change that company forever.

EA really is the worst thing going in gaming right now. They're like Wal-Mart. And unstoppable beheamoth with no soul. All flash, no substance and pure evil with their sole and only focus being only to get bigger and bigger. I truly hate them and would happily spit in the face of their CEO just before punching him in the face.
 
EA won't be publishing KOTOR 3. It's still completely owned by LucasArts, whether BioWare develops it or not.

The MASS EFFECT sequels, however...

Yea, but if they own Bioware, they might decide to do something stupid. Hopefully Lucas would stop them from doing that.
 
Take Two said NO.

https://games.ign.com/articles/854/854553p1.html

...but they'll be willing to re-negotiate the day after GTAIV releases.


No, their managing Board of Directors said no. Problem being, they don't get the final say. EA took the matter hostile when they went public with the offer (the bastards set up a website dedicated to it, :monkey4 ). They have 2 options now - attempt to buyout a majority of the publicly held stock or call for the termination of the Board of Directors at the April meeting and, in essence, get a shill Board elected who would accept their offer. The problem here is that Take Two's investors have been on hard times since Hot Coffee, so many might look at this as a "Get Out of Jail Free Card" and push the deal through. Sad, sad times ahead. Only good thing is that R* and the majority of their staff have change of ownership clauses in their contracts - i.e. they reserve the right to walk if the company is bought out. Sure, EA would probably keep the Grand Theft Auto moniker ... but so be it. Form a new company and change the name. Hell, the game hasn't been focused strictly on car jackin' since the top down 8-bit days. Change the name, tell EA to f@uk themselves and laugh as GTA 2009 bombs. Maybe blowing 2 billion on this acquisition and losing all the talent would be worth the trouble.

As for market outlook, this is the crap analyst are spouting:

For EA, sports is enough to pay for the whole [$2 billion] thing. If you get rid of sports competition, you suddenly add Take Two’s $200 million per year in sports revenue and EA doesn’t compete on price anymore. So, theoretically, they could grow that business by $100 million [per year].

Currently [EA and Take Two] compete in pro basketball, college basketball and hockey. So by taking out all of that, EA has a monopoly in sports. If these guys have a monopoly, they’re not going to cut pricing on sports games as quickly. We’ve been seeing sports games come down [in price] before Christmas the last couple of years. That’ll never happen again.

That’s worth a lot [to EA]. Everything else is gravy. GTA is just gravy…

https://www.gamepolitics.com/

Sorry, but an EA monopoly will hurt gaming a lot more in the long run. A lack of competition leads to a lack of quality (and, their Sports Games have consistently sucked for the last 2 years of competition ... imagine them 10 times worse). Consumers may be lemmings at times, but eventually they will tire of EA Sports Game 2010, and stop buying them. Sales go down, the industry suffers, EA goes bankrupt ... well, one can hope. EA is the real Evil Empire people accuse Microsoft of being. Hell, at least Gates and Crew are trying to innovate.
 
I don't mind - I have Take Two stock and it went up about 40% today. :chew

Yeah, but it's already sliding back down in after-hours trading. Everyone, hold on to your stock ... it for the best.




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They gone yet? SELL DAVE SELL .... Make some scratch and get the hell out of Dodge before this all gets ugly.
 
EA is looking after their best interest, but in the end, it will be gamers that suffer for it. I avoid buying any and all EA games, but Mass Effect 2 will challenge that position. I just have a hard time giving them money that will allow them to continue on this jagged path.
 
EA screwed up DICE's "Battlefield" franchise. I'm sure they'll dick with BioWare and "Mass Effect" too. :rolleyes:
 
All I know is if they mess up Knights of the Old Republic III, I will have to kill them.....

sides, the can't touch it, as they handed the property over to obsidian ent after the first one.
if the change bioware's buisness model, then bioware will make them less cash, HOPEFULLY they understand that.
 
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