Take-Two: We’re For Sale, If The Price Is Right

by Wade Larson on March 27, 2008 at 2:44 am

This is it?! This is insulting.

Take-Two Interactive told stockholders at a recent meeting that the buyout offer from Electronic Arts wasn’t good enough. Not that they’re not for sale, it’s just going to cost a potential buyer a bit more than $2 billion.

The publishers of Grand Theft Auto want to wait until April 29 for the latest iteration of their flagship series to hit shelves before they start seriously considering offers. It sounds like a solid plan from this end, as the game is expected to be a huge seller, but then again I’m not financially invested in the company beyond the $60 I’m going to spend on GTA 4.

Take-Two is open to private preliminary talks before the game releases, which means we likely won’t hear anything from them until either the April 17 shareholders meeting or after the game releases. Unless, of course, EA ups the ante to a more favorable number in the eyes of Take-Two executives and shareholders. But they may have to compete with other potential suitors, as Yahoo Finance quoted Take-Two as having received “indications of interest” from others, but said there haven’t been any “substantive discussions.”

A merger of this caliber would be a huge boost to EA, especially after Vivendi and Acitivision raised the bar a few months back, but it sounds like Take-Two won’t go for cheap. If EA does get their way, they can always just beat Take-Two with a baseball bat to get their money back afterwards.

Source: Yahoo Finance

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