EA offers 2 BILLION for Take-Two (the end of the world)

[Akileese]

This is fucking horrible. Someone needs to step in and stop them now. This is nothing more than a horrible deal for consumers (great for Take-Two stockholders who will make a shitload of money in one shot). If this goes down, EA will literally monopoly pro sports aside from Pro Evolution Soccer. There will be no more NBA2K series. No more NHL 2K. College Hoops is already dead because word is EA is working on an exclusivity deal with the NCAA in that regard. To make matter worse, they'd own Bioshock, GTA, Sid Meier, and just about every other good franchise left.

Should someone step in and stop this? Don't we have laws in place to stop companies from EA and offering hoards of cash to buy stuff? If this somehow goes through, wouldn't they own a monopoly on Sports games? Good god. This has me absolutely petrified. I mean, I don't mind the FIFA series or the NHL series (both NHL series' have their pros and cons), but the Live series has been trash for the last 5 years. The only good thing that could come of this is EA would own the MLB license and could can MVP NCAA and bring back MVP baseball for the pros. This would make Baseball game fans everywhere jump for joy (myself included). It's not worth it though.

I just brought up the sports part of it. Bring of more reasons why this will bring on the era of expensive games that all suck.

[Zuuljin]

Sports games are lame! Why dont you go outside and play [insert sport here] for real!!!1!

Other than that, meh, business will be business.

[Ronne]

If they fuck up Bioshock I will burn their headquarters down.

[Angerz]

I doubt anyone could step in as they dont have a monopoly on sports games, just games people will want to buy cause EA owns all the major sports licenses.

No one says another company cant make another game.

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by Zuuljin

Sports games are lame! Why dont you go outside and play [insert sport here] for real!!!1!

Other than that, meh, business will be business.

Because people play sports outside and like to play video game sports too. I am pretty hard core sports gamer, the competition online is awesome, plus they sell a whole hell of alot of games.


Anyways, i hear Take Two doesnt wanna do shit until after GTAIV. Their stock will shoot up a bit as GTAIV is going to sell shitload of copies.

If EA somehow does this. Gaming in general is going to be fucked. They are just going to pick off any other company with a successful game.

[kcxiv]

05:11 PM - February 24, 2008 by Steve_OS
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Board of Directors of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTWO - News) today confirmed that it has received an unsolicited proposal from Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS - News) to acquire Take-Two for $26.00 per share in cash. Take-Two’s Board of Directors has thoroughly reviewed EA’s unsolicited proposal with the assistance of its independent financial and legal advisors and concluded that the proposal is inadequate in multiple respects and not in the best interests of Take-Two’s stockholders.

After careful evaluation, the Board has determined that EA's proposal substantially undervalues Take-Two’s robust and enviable stable of game franchises, exceptional creative talent and strong consumer loyalty. We believe EA's unsolicited offer is highly opportunistic and is attempting to take advantage of our upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto IV, one of the most valuable and durable franchises in the industry. Furthermore, the offer values the Company at a significant discount to its public peers and does not compensate Take-Two for its intrinsic value and the substantial synergies that the proposed combination would create.

Strauss Zelnick, Executive Chairman of the Board of Take-Two commented, “Electronic Arts’ proposal provides insufficient value to our shareholders and comes at absolutely the wrong time given the crucial initiatives underway at the Company. Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our creative and business teams, Take-Two has made enormous strides in the past 10 months toward our common goal of being the most creative, innovative and efficient company in our industry. We're extremely proud of our unique portfolio of game franchises, exceptional creative talent and loyal consumer following. Our Board believes that we will build greater value for our stakeholders by remaining relentlessly focused on our strategy and delivering on our mission of making the highest quality interactive entertainment."

Mr. Zelnick continued, “In addition to undervaluing key elements of our business, EA’s proposal fails to recognize the value we are building through our ongoing turnaround efforts, which will further revitalize Take-Two. While we have made substantial progress already, the turnaround of our business which we initiated in June is not yet complete, and we believe its benefits have not been recognized in either our current stock price or in the value of EA’s proposal."

Mr. Zelnick added, “While the Board believes that entering into discussions with EA at this time is not in the best interests of shareholders, we had offered to enter into a good-faith dialogue with EA to determine if our companies can reach common ground on the appropriate value of Take-Two as a first step to realizing a mutually beneficially transaction. However, given the great importance of the Grand Theft Auto IV launch to the value of Take-Two, the Board has determined that the only prudent and responsible course for our Company and its stockholders is to defer these discussions until immediately after Grand Theft Auto IV is released. Therefore, we offered to initiate discussions with EA on April 30th, 2008 (the day after Grand Theft Auto IV is scheduled to release). We believe this offer demonstrated our commitment to pursuing all avenues to maximize stockholder value, while we believe that EA’s refusal to entertain this path is evidence of their desire to acquire Take-Two at a significant discount, whereas we believe this value rightly belongs to our stockholders.”

Take-Two has a proven track record of creating and acquiring ownership of valuable new intellectual property. Grand Theft Auto is one of the industry’s top franchises, having sold more than 65 million units to date. Over the past year, Take-Two has continued to expand its owned intellectual property portfolio, with two new franchises established – BioShock, one of the highest rated games of all time and winner of numerous “Game of the Year” awards, which has sold over 2 million units to date – and Carnival Games, a casual game for the Wii™, which has sold over 1 million units to date. Take-Two’s other proven million-unit selling video game franchises include Midnight Club, Sid Meier’s Civilization, Bully, Red Dead Revolver, Max Payne, Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis, Manhunt, Red Dead Revolver, Mafia, The Darkness, Spec Ops, Sid Meier's Railroads! and Sid Meier's Pirates! Take-Two also has powerful and growing sports franchises, with licenses for leading brands, including Major League Baseball® 2K, NBA® 2K and NHL® 2K, and proprietary sports brands, such as Top Spin, All Pro Football and Don King Presents: Prizefighter. Additionally, Take-Two has a partnership with Nickelodeon to publish video games based on top rated Nick Jr. titles such as Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go!

Ben Feder, Chief Executive Officer of Take-Two, commented, “The revitalization of Take-Two is well underway. In the last year, we have accomplished a great deal in terms of restructuring our cost base to improve margins, addressing the legacy issues that have weighed on our business, and enhancing our creative output through organic and external initiatives. We believe stockholders will reap the benefits of these actions both in the near and long term and that our efforts will create greater value for stockholders than what is being offered by EA at this time.”

As part of its turnaround plan, Take-Two has implemented a more streamlined and efficient operating structure, put in place a $25 million cost cutting initiative, instituted a disciplined Product Investment Review Process, restructured international operations to create a more efficient and responsive international organization, consolidated the majority of 2K Games and 2K Sports operations on the West Coast to increase efficiency and better support the growth of these labels, and sold its non-core Joytech business.

To continue to position itself for the future, the Company has begun to more aggressively leverage potential growth opportunities, with the acquisition of Illusion Softworks development studio and the formation of the 2K Play label to focus on the family and casual games market.

In addition, current management has secured a $140 million line of credit, announced a preliminary settlement of the “Hot Coffee” class action and made significant progress in resolving the New York District Attorney and SEC actions that have been pending against Take-Two since June 2006 and July 2006, respectively.

Mr. Feder concluded, "We remain committed to executing our existing business strategy and turnaround plans and to building value for all of our stockholders. We intend to vigorously resist any attempt by EA to acquire Take-Two at a price that does not adequately value our Company and its growth opportunities."

Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers are acting as financial advisors to Take-Two and Proskauer Rose LLP is acting as a legal advisor.

This communication does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any vote or approval.

For more information, please visit Take 2 Games - Coming Soon..

So everyone needs to fucking buy GTAIV.

[Hippos II]

what ^ said.

[Flesseck]

In a shorter version, Take-Two isn't retarded, and they're saying "fuck you" to EA.

[Jait]

If they think 26 a share is under value, they're on crack.

I don't want to see them sold either, anyone who's been forced to read my rants on EA since they gobbled up everyone in the 90's knows that. Quick check on Schwab shows them at 17.11 in after-hours.

So yeah, they're going to be bought out. There's not nearly enough emotion to overcome the amount of money shareholders will make on this deal. Sucks.

[Akileese]

GTA IV will give them such a huge Q1 boost. That game will shatter every sales record for this generation and it'll break all DLC records as well when the time comes. Crecente had a decent bit over on Kotaku about the pros and cons of it. It was pretty well written and while some of the pros are worth while, the cons far outweigh them.

[Blumpster]

It would definitely be a stupid decision on Take-Two's part. I do not think major titles such as GTA, TES, and Civilization would suffer very much, but I'm sure 2k Boston/Australia, 2k Czech, and Venom games would all be consolidated in some shitty SoCal office with entirely new employees and proceed to excrete loads of shit from their bowels. I also don't think they'd shut down 2k Sports, just turn them into shitty no license games where they can try out new (shitty) features for their EA series.

Eh, they just published Oblivion for Bethesda didn't they? Guess that wouldn't effect TES much.

[Akileese]

Originally Posted by Blumpster

It would definitely be a stupid decision on Take-Two's part. I do not think major titles such as GTA, TES, and Civilization would suffer very much, but I'm sure 2k Boston/Australia, 2k Czech, and Venom games would all be consolidated in some shitty SoCal office with entirely new employees and proceed to excrete loads of shit from their bowels. I also don't think they'd shut down 2k Sports, just turn them into shitty no license games where they can try out new (shitty) features for their EA series.

Two things.
1) Blumpster, is your icon an indication of a beer preference or are you actually from BMPK? If you are, I think we need to have a nice chat.

2) The problem with the consolidation is that EA Sports has become so fucking lazy they don't have a single game that's better than anything 2K Sports pump out. Live is clearly inferior to NBA 2K and NHL 08 and NHL 2K8 are a toss up depending on what your preference is. Madden is Madden. I don't think it's a bad game, I just feel it's in need of a major overhaul. But like I brought up in the Wrestlemania thread, when you have NO competition, your product suffers and so does your audience because the urgency isn't there. I mean after All Pro came out, EA sneakily tried to snatch up a fucking legends license with the NFL to prevent 2K from using any former players (which didn't work as far as I know). FIFA Street is an alright game for what it's worth. I was never a fan of NFL Street and NBA Street has gone downhill from the original year after year.

I'll agree with Blumpster, I don't think they'd shut down 2K Sports, but they're certainly not going to let it overshadow their shitty sports franchises. It's kind of funny how paralleled WWE and EA are actually. They both keep trying to buy up all their competition and every time they do, the product keeps getting a little worse.

Even if it is a bad deal for their stockholders, I don't want to be bought out. The ramifications would be too great. I mean, if this happens, take a look at the end year numbers for sales and see how many of those top 10 games are from studios EA acquired. I bet you'll see a lot of them.

This deal may not hurt us much in 2008 and probably 2009 because everything is already being worked on in that regard, but from 2010 on, this deal could do serious damage to the gaming industry with EA's desire of quantity over quality (as well as their infatuation with deadlines and forcing out buggy and unfinished software).

[gurgi]

.

[Flesseck]

Originally Posted by Jait

If they think 26 a share is under value, they're on crack.

I don't want to see them sold either, anyone who's been forced to read my rants on EA since they gobbled up everyone in the 90's knows that. Quick check on Schwab shows them at 17.11 in after-hours.

So yeah, they're going to be bought out. There's not nearly enough emotion to overcome the amount of money shareholders will make on this deal. Sucks.

Yeah, I've actually been following their stock. They were approximately at 15.50 a few days ago.

[Szlia]

I read that announcement as "we rock and they suck, plus we are worth far more than that".