Topic: EA Steps Up Efforts to Acquire Take-Two

[Yoshidious]

A tender offer of $26 per share will be made directly to shareholders following the rejection by Take Two's directors of last month's equally priced takeover bid.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=15564

 The Wall Street Journal has learned that Electronic Arts is continuing to pursue a takeover of Take-Two Interactive, following up last month's $26 per share offer that was rejected by Take-Two's board of directors with a tender offer to shareholders at the same price.    

The move to circumvent Take-Two's board of directors and approach shareholders directly marks an appreciably hostile turn in EA attempts to complete their latest acquisition. The board has urged shareholders to take no action at this time pending its review of the offer.    

Previously, it has maintained that the EA bid is of insufficient value to be accepted, and has decried its timing in relation to the April release of Grand Theft Auto IV as opportunistic.    

The offer is said to expire at midnight April 11, a day after Take-Two's annual shareholders meeting. Analysts project that there will likely need to be an increased offer to complete a takeover in the near term, and also that EA may walk away in the hope of a less costly acquisition down the road if shareholders stand their ground looking for a higher price.    

When EA initially made its advances public, the $2 billion valuation of Take-Two constituted a 50% premium over the closing price of the company's shares. Subsequently, shares have been trading for around (and briefly above) the $26 level, and are expected to spike upwards again with the release of GTA IV.    

In publicly divulged correspondence with Take-Two, EA contends that the market currently reflects expectations of strong sales for GTA IV, hence its valuation is fair and the deal should be made prior to the April 29 launch date. Take-Two's directors have pledged to further discuss any offers only after that date, also noting that other suitors have approached them since EA's bid was made public.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I am actually rooting for EA.

[Ceric]

EA has put there offer on the table and when GTA doesn't perform up to expectations, I'm fairly sure that the expectations will be inflated, the regular Stockholders will remember.  Though  I don't really get why EA would really want the trouble except for publicity.

[NWR_insanolord]

I am also rooting for EA.

[Kairon]

Why are we rooting for EA buying out yet another company again?

[Mario]

I'm not, EA can stuff it.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Let the industry crash.

[animecyberrat]

Unless Sega is one of the others interested I don't care. Since Sega sold off their 2k games to take two a while back and got out of the sports business. That is one area Sega was really good even to the end.

[RABicle]

How is this even allowed to take place? Isn't there something anti-competitive going on here? I mean, put GTA4 aside for a moment. Take2's other big big franchise is the 2k Sports games. How is it possible that EA is even allowed to absorb the talent pool of their only competition? **** capitalism, if this goes ahead it's all kinds of bad for everyone. Fifa will be EA's only annual sports franchise under any sort of competition if this hostile takeover happens.

[NWR_insanolord]

My reasoning is that Take 2 barely supports Nintendo's platforms, EA supports them quite a bit, and EA would make Take 2 do the same. Also, I'm holding out a little hope for the return of MVP Baseball.

[Svevan]

EA will force Take Two to support Nintendo with shitty PORTS; not exactly what we want

more independence for game developers; it's impossible to make games without being bought up and assimilated, while all your good ideas are spit onto the sidewalk

[NWR_insanolord]

Shitty ports are all we're currently getting from Take 2, so I don't see how this would make it worse. EA has done good work on the Wii, I don't hate them like everyone else seems to, and I would be fine with them buying Take 2.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I'm for EA because I find Take-Two, Rockstar especially, to be one of the most repulsive overrated companies going.

[GoldenPhoenix]

while all your good ideas are spit onto the sidewalk

It would be a shame if Hooker Taxi got spit onto the sidewalk.

[Svevan]

I'm for EA because I find Take-Two, Rockstar especially, to be one of the most repulsive overrated companies going.

This isn't a good reason to create a conglomerate media giant who can dictate what we do and do not play. EA is already the Time Warner of video games, the last thing I want them to do is have MORE say in what games get released and what doesn't.

Plus they release licensed ****, which is ten times morally inferior to anything Rockstar ever released.

More autonomy! Less monopoly! Down with free market!

[NWR_insanolord]

I'm for EA because I find Take-Two, Rockstar especially, to be one of the most repulsive overrated companies going.

This isn't a good reason to create a conglomerate media giant who can dictate what we do and do not play. EA is already the Time Warner of video games, the last thing I want them to do is have MORE say in what games get released and what doesn't.

Plus they release licensed ****, which is ten times morally inferior to anything Rockstar ever released.

More autonomy! Less monopoly! Down with free market!

If this were EA buying up some small studio that could be an argument, but this is EA buying Take 2. I don't see how EA controlling Take 2 is any worse than them being separate entities.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I'm for EA because I find Take-Two, Rockstar especially, to be one of the most repulsive overrated companies going.

This isn't a good reason to create a conglomerate media giant who can dictate what we do and do not play. EA is already the Time Warner of video games, the last thing I want them to do is have MORE say in what games get released and what doesn't.

Plus they release licensed ****, which is ten times morally inferior to anything Rockstar ever released.

More autonomy! Less monopoly! Down with free market!

I think this is quite unfair, yeah EA has had problems but they also have some great games that are licensed like the Godfather. It is quite irritating hearing that EA is a bad developer because they are not, they have created some great games and still do.  Could EA benefit from tightening down on the quality? Of course, but also realize even Nintendo releases crap every now and then, and they are a huge company as well that eats up other companies. That is how you grow and expand, I personally would love to see what EA could do with Take-Two.

[Kairon]

I'm sorry GP, but I like Take Two. They've got their own flavor and style, and they're trying to push some new boundaries that haven't been pushed before. I'd hate to see EA repress that spirit of hurtling freedom.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I'm sorry GP, but I like Take Two. They've got their own flavor and style, and they're trying to push some new boundaries that haven't been pushed before. I'd hate to see EA repress that spirit of hurtling freedom.

What has Take-Two really done lately? Bioshock is about it besides regurgitating the GTA franchise and sports games. Heck I think most of their franchises are cookie cutter sequels now, whether it be Civilization, Dungeon Seige (never a great game), and Elder Scrolls (Probably their highest quality franchise).

[NWR_insanolord]

I'm sorry GP, but I like Take Two. They've got their own flavor and style, and they're trying to push some new boundaries that haven't been pushed before. I'd hate to see EA repress that spirit of hurtling freedom.

What has Take-Two really done lately? Bioshock is about it besides regurgitating the GTA franchise and sports games. Heck I think most of their franchises are cookie cutter sequels now, whether it be Civilization, Dungeon Seige (never a great game), and Elder Scrolls (Probably their highest quality franchise).

Don't you ever, ever call Civilization cookie-cutter ever again. Civ IV introduced huge improvements and innovations and the Beyond the Sword expansion pack had enough content that it could have justified a full sequel all on its own. I <3 Sid Meier, second only to Miyamoto on the list of greatest game developers of all time.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I'm sorry GP, but I like Take Two. They've got their own flavor and style, and they're trying to push some new boundaries that haven't been pushed before. I'd hate to see EA repress that spirit of hurtling freedom.

What has Take-Two really done lately? Bioshock is about it besides regurgitating the GTA franchise and sports games. Heck I think most of their franchises are cookie cutter sequels now, whether it be Civilization, Dungeon Seige (never a great game), and Elder Scrolls (Probably their highest quality franchise).

Don't you ever, ever call Civilization cookie-cutter ever again. Civ IV introduced huge improvements and innovations and the Beyond the Sword expansion pack had enough content that it could have justified a full sequel all on its own. I <3 Sid Meier, second only to Miyamoto on the list of greatest game developers of all time.

OK perhaps I didn't phrase that right, they rely on sequels just as much as EA. The Civ games are great games, as is Elder Scrolls but EA has them as well. I was just showing that Take-Two doesn't push the envelope anymore than EA does. In fact I'd be willing to say at least EA is trying to push the envelope with Wii, they are trying new things and are willing to take a shot at putting time and effort into their games unlike Take-Two. Sure EA has missed a few but others like Godfather, Madden, and MoH pushed the current box of what a 3rd party game should be like. MoH did this especially well even with a control scheme that rivaled Nintendo's own and an online network that beats the crap out of anything else on Wii.

I personally think Take-Two could benefit from EA's money bags, and it would great to add a Sid Meier to EA, maybe he could team up with Will Wright?

[NWR_insanolord]

I just wish MLB 2K8 for the Wii had received the same attention as Madden for the Wii has. They got the controls (mostly) down, but the game is far from polished and is missing features that could have definitely been done on the Wii, but Take 2 didn't give it the time or resources.

[animecyberrat]

Well to be fair Take 2 has put more games on the Wii than they did the GC so it's not like they aren't trying, they recently did Bully remember.

[NWR_insanolord]

If I'm not mistaken the only game Take 2 made for the Cube was Major League Baseball 2K6, and they wouldn't have made that if they hadn't gotten the exclusive rights to MLB, the worst thing to ever happen to sports games. It's not hard to beat 1 game. They've put out 4 for the Wii, Table Tennis, Manhunt 2, Bully, and MLB 2K8. They didn't seem to put any real effort into any of them (Bully still turned out well because it was a port of a game they actually cared about making).

[DAaaMan64]

What if I say I don't care about what either company does?

As far as I am concerned EA needs to:

-  Take Need For Speed back to the Hot Pursuit days when the games had class.
-  Keep up their Wii experimenting.  (Godfather rocked balls even if it wasn't an experiment.)

TakeTwo:

- Needs to keep making good GTA games.
- Make more cool games like Bully but throw trash out the door like Table Tennis and Manhunt 2. They're turning us off of the sandbox games :/

All those things will either never happen anyway(Need for Speed will never happen) or will continue to happen if EA acquired them.

EA MAKES GOOD ****(sometimes)

And I seriously don't think they are being anti-competitive yet, in order to do that, they'd have to bring the whole market to the point where all they have to do is release shitty games every year.  Atari brought the industry to that, even if it wasn't intentional, they weren't being anti-competitiive though.  Maybe they get a way with that with Madden, but for now that makes the consumer happy, and it isn't like someone else couldn't release a competing sports game.  They'd also have to have control over some sort of universal component of the industry to be considered monopolistic, such as the disc pressing hardware. That way they can control who can and cannot release games. That'll never happen.  Some of you are getting kinda worked up.


It's not to say that I am rooting for EA or TakeTwo, but I am completely indifferent on the result.  I'm more curious to see what happens with that.  EA isn't gonna take TakeTwo's stuff and make them shitty that would make TakeTwo terrible acquisition on EAs part.  If EA did that their stock would go down, which is incentive for them to make good games again. Wooh!  The whole industry can't be fooled into buying shitty things.