Take-Two takeover: investors ousting chief exec

by James Ransom-Wiley on Mar 8th 2007 11:56AM

According to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Take-Two investors plan to attempt to install former BMG chief exec Strauss Zelnick as non-executive chairman. The coup aims to oust current chief executive Paul Eibeler and take a close look at chief financial officer Karl Winters. If Winters ain't pulling for the right side, he'll likely be dropped too. Investors currently control 46% of company shares.

The potential management shake up follows several years of shady financial "irregularities," recently highlighted by former CEO Ryan Brant pleading guilty to stock option crimes. Citigroup analyst Elizabeth Osur called today's news "long overdue," and JP Morgan analyst Dean Gianoukos added that the change would be "positive for the company, assuming key development personnel are retained." Investors might win this round, but Arvind Bhatia of Sterne, Agee & Leach reminds us that Take-Two's problems will not be solved "overnight".

[Via Game Stooge]

Source

Tags: Take2, TakeTwo

Reader Comments (5)

um.... I don't know what to say.

Sony...buy while theyre wounded and secure the exclusive.

Let me say what everyone on Wall Street is thinking: creating lawless games and coloring outside the lines financially MIGHT be related. You don't see this kind of upheavel at Intuit or Corel. Usually.

Let Proxy season begin!

This guy f'd it up when he had to cower in the hot coffee investigation due to his shady options back-dating. Too bad, they could have sold millions of more copies if they had told the gov to stick it and made an even more explicite version. I'm filing a trademark under "GTA:Unrated".