Take Two mulling sale of company

32 Comments by Kyle Orland Mar 19th 2007 11:35AM
Filed under: Business

The financial news from video game mega-publisher Take Two Interactive has run the gamut from bad to horrible over the past month or so. First there was a report from analyst Michael Pachter that suggested selling the company's stock. Then there was a disappointing earnings restatement and a shareholder coup that sought to overthrow CEO Paul Eibler. Now comes word that Take Two is considering selling the company to pacify the group of angry shareholders.

Gamasutra is reporting that the Grand Theft Auto publisher has postponed its annual meeting from March 23 to March 29 to come up with alternative plans to present to the shareholders, which own a combined 46 percent of the company. One of the main alternatives mentioned in the official notice is "a possible sale of the Company." There's no guarantee such a sale will actually take place, but the fact that they're even considering it shows just how bad things are getting at Take Two HQ. Wall street seems to support the idea -- shares of the company were up 5.47 percent to $22 in early-morning trading.

[Via Xbox360Fanboy]

Tags: business, earnings, Grand Theft Auto, GrandTheftAuto, sale, stockholder, take two, TakeTwo

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

tcc3: Mar 19th 2007; 11:42AM

Im sure Jack Thomson is taking this as a win and is writing his boastful scripture filled victory speech right now.

Jack of No Trades: Mar 19th 2007; 11:45AM

Bye Bye Grand Theft Auto 4. Hear comes Dish Washing Mama. Damn I hate those stupid games.

CowboyGA: Mar 19th 2007; 11:46AM

I hate reading this after reading the Jack Master-of-Evil Thompson post. I'm sure he's taking credit for their troubles.

LaughingTarget: Mar 19th 2007; 11:47AM

GTA4 isn't going anywhere. It'll still have a Take-Two name on it. Announcing a sale and going through with it usually takes around 9 months.

shase: Mar 19th 2007; 11:49AM

Please dont let MS/Sony buy them....especially MS

LaughingTarget: Mar 19th 2007; 11:51AM

shase -

You won't have to worry about Sony buying them. They don't have the leverage available to raise that kind of capital. MS is a problem though, they DO have the leverage.

My guess is EA or UbiSoft taking over.

kris: Mar 19th 2007; 11:51AM

I would laugh if EA games bought them.

LaughingTarget: Mar 19th 2007; 11:52AM

Wild-ass guess right now.

Remember how Nintendo was so quiet over the GDC? Companies usually do this when major announcements like partnerships or purchases are around the corner. GTA4 Wii maybe?

(disclaimer: this guess is a wild-ass one that is a better fit as an April Fools joke than a real assesment)

delldude420: Mar 19th 2007; 11:53AM

nintendo should buy them. gta 4 only on nintendo wii

Jack of No Trades: Mar 19th 2007; 11:54AM

GTA4 Wii? LOL Yea that was a wild ass guess. Maybe GTA Liberty City Stories Wii. They wouldn't require much work to port.

Myke: Mar 19th 2007; 11:55AM

I would laugh if Nintendo bought them. Talk about that coming out of left field, hahahaha. I know it'd never happen with the stock deal thingy about to go through and whatnot but that would still be a move that would leave some slack-jawed stares around the industry. And then make GTA4 a Wii exclusive, oh god! I own a 360 and a Wii so I'm looking forward to GTA4 on the 360 but I'd have to sit back and laugh if the big N just decided they're having a really sh*tty Monday and they wanted to f-up a big system seller for the two other companies.

AssemblyLineHuman: Mar 19th 2007; 11:55AM

LaughingTarget: But we already know that's because the Japanese government had just put a ton of Nintendo stock on the market.

LaughingTarget: Mar 19th 2007; 11:59AM

Assembly -

That wouldn't be the reason. The stock sale occurred before GDC. Silence is a tactic companies use when trying to keep their stock values from fluctuating, which is something that happens when a stock deal goes down. I'm convinced Nintendo needs the stock to remain steady to buy out a company, but not Take-Two. More likely what 32 from Netjak said, they'll most likely be tieing down Game Freak and Creature to keep the Pokemon studio under their control.

sheppy: Mar 19th 2007; 12:00PM

EA purchases them on a Tuesday
Fires everyone on a Wednesday, but offers them a chance to "audition" for their old jobs back with significant cuts in benefits and salary.

Hey, it happened to DICE...

LunarDuality: Mar 19th 2007; 12:12PM

Yeah, they're all screaming "revolt, revolt!" now...but once GTAIV drops they'll all be counting their money. Typical stockholder freakouts.

Myke: Mar 19th 2007; 12:17PM

Take Two: "Yeah, we're thinking about selling our company. Things have gotten harder and we feel it would benefit the industry if we sell our company and liscensed games to a worth developer that will treat them well. It's a sad day for our company but we feel it is for the best."

Jack Thompson: "The Lord has taken me unto his breast and aided me in the destruction of this stem of moral decay known as Take-Two!!!!!!"

Take Two: "APRIL FOOLS!!! GTA 4: SPECIAL-ULTRA-GORY BLOOD-FROM-BABIES-BRAINS-EDITION will hit store shelves next month for 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, Gamecube, DS, PSP, GBA, Dreamcast, and Commodore 64!!!!!!!!!"

sheppy: Mar 19th 2007; 12:58PM

@Myke

Lay off Jack Thompson. He's the only good thing to happen to video games since they started. He will succeed in ridding the planet of all the anti-christian hate and filth that pollutes this industry. Long live Jack Thompson and more power to him.

DeezNuts420: Mar 19th 2007; 1:04PM

Looks like the Sony Fanboys are getting nervous again. Microsoft would be crazy NOT to buy them.

"You smell that?"
"Yeah....FEAR!"

Crono: Mar 19th 2007; 1:24PM

I think we've just determined that the person Jacking Sheppy's name is Emotep/summercamp/douchebag.

Crono: Mar 19th 2007; 1:25PM

I think we've just determined that the person Jacking Sheppy's name is Emotep/summercamp/douchebag.

Crono: Mar 19th 2007; 1:25PM

Stupid Joystiq double post...

Austin: Mar 19th 2007; 1:27PM

The best strategy i could see for them is to go private. Get the fed regulators off there back and concentrate on shaping there image around GTA. They should only hope that they get subpoenaed to testify about violence in games. They really missed out in the hot-coffe mess. All the free publicity about a crazy game that is soo popular and they go and deny they even made it? Slap a mature rating on it and show people what your made of.

H880: Mar 19th 2007; 2:26PM

Going from public to private costs a lot of money, and removes the possibility of being able to raise funds through the sale of stocks.

If Take Two is indeed up for sale, likely suitors could be EA, Ubisoft, Microsoft, or Sony.

If Microsoft or Sony purchase the company, that would be huge, as they would have a system exclusive for the one of the biggest selling franchises of all time.

Sony is not in the best financial shape, but they could certainly purchase the company. And it would be in their benefit to do so.

It would also benefit Microsoft to purchase the company.

But anyone who might purchase Take Two, also acquires a lot of baggage, and that might be a problem.

dsub: Mar 19th 2007; 2:27PM

if EA takes over, than they will single handedly monopolize the entire sports game genre. An EA buyout would be horrible to sports fans. I could see MS picking them up though.

-Dominic: Mar 19th 2007; 2:37PM

Come on Bill open up that checkbook!

Anonymous: Mar 19th 2007; 4:20PM

GTA4 is going to make Take-Two a shitload of money. So they'd be kind of...strange to sell the corporation. Though I'd almost rather die than work there; I heard they get picketers alot like how Cigarette companies do.

Mr Khan: Mar 19th 2007; 4:20PM

GTA wouldn't be Take Two's responsibility, they just publish it, i'm not sure how much ownership they have of the IP itself,

Which would mean Rockstar would just find another publisher, i mean the publishers would be jumping all over each other to get at those rights (it would be the same game published by Activision as it would by Take Two)

m ike: Mar 19th 2007; 4:36PM

Laughingtarget

"Nintendo made a much smaller splash at GDC, mainly because of a pending stock deal in Japan that forced the company's executives to keep their yaps shut about any future plans."
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/entertainment/16902106.htm

ur wrong. the deal ahs not happened yet and was why they were so quite at gdc. the truth is the 2 biggest threats to buy them would be MS or EA. I even heard rumblings ms was trying to buy them last year. Sony can not come up with the capita to buy them. they ahd to take out a load just to launch the ps3 remeber?

Mr Khan

Take 2 owns rockstar. just so you know. any sale of take 2 would include rockstar and any of their ips.

Crono: Mar 19th 2007; 4:50PM

All right. I admit it. I'm the one that's been jacking sheppy's name. I've really enjoyed it. So, fuck you all, I've totally fooled you. Hahaha.

REUYL: Mar 19th 2007; 6:13PM

If Microsoft buys Rockstar, I don't think anyone will be able to stop them for a while.

Matthew Lesko: Mar 20th 2007; 12:58AM

EA could launch their own console with all the franchises and games they've bought over the years. Add Take Two to the list...

Matt: Mar 20th 2007; 1:06AM

GTA was always overrated anyway. Go Jack Thompson!!!!111

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