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EA to Take-Two: "We're patient..."

April 01, 2008 in News comments 3

Take-Two executives must have thought they were clever by delaying its annual shareholder meeting by a week to April 17 so that EA's buyout offer would expire, but EA saw through their ploy and extended their deadline appropriately to April 18. Take-Two is still urging shareholders to say no, but they have stated that they're open to being bought... Even by EA.

The catch from Take-Two? They don't want anyone taking their profit from GTA IV, so they're doing their best not to talk to EA until after the game's April 29 release, putting an eleven to twelve day period between the offer's expiration and Take-Two's offer to start negotiating.

Electronic Arts Inc., the world's biggest video game publisher, extended its tender offer for Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. Friday by a week to April 18. On Wednesday, its smaller rival delayed its annual shareholder meeting by a week to April 17.

EA also added a condition to its offer requiring that Take-Two scrap the 180-day "poison pill" it adopted earlier this week, or at least make it inapplicable to the buyout. Designed to make a takeover more expensive for the buyer, the poison pill kicks in if an outsider acquires 20 percent of Take-Two's shares, or if an existing shareholder who already owns this much buys another 2 percent.
Avalith via biz.yahoo.com »
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  • 0
    StarJet Apr 2, 08
    EA must be trying hard to get their asses upto Rockstar before the release of GTA IV.
    • 0
      Avalith Apr 2, 08
      Pretty much. They know that GTA IV is going to be huge and they want to get their hands on the cash. They claim to want to push GTA IV with their marketing power (thanks to the company's deep pockets) for the holiday season, but they're clearly trying to make a buck off of Take-Two's most popular games.
  • 1
    Existenz Apr 2, 08
    Take Two just sell already... I mean i'm not EA's biggest fan despite liking so many of their games, but Take Two really are being childish now. I mean delaying a meeting to get out of it, its like 3 friends playing hide and go seek to try and ditch the 3rd party, it never works and it's kids stuff.

    If they got negotiating now they could like adults settle this in a way that works for both parties and their shareholders, at the end of the day EA wants their name on the box, money is probably a small priority.

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