Imagine Square Enix's proposed takeover of Tecmo as a high school "romance." In it, Square is the suave campus hunk who professes his burning desire for Tecmo, the hottie who could have any guy (or girl) she wanted. But Tecmo not only shoots down the advance, she decides to "go out" with the scrawny, less attractive Koei instead.

She won't say why or even return Square's calls.

Square turns around and says, "Under such circumstances, the Company is unable to make appropriate modifications to major terms of the Proposal including the TOB price, and determines that it is extremely difficult to continue the discussions with Tecmo based on the Proposal. The Company, therefore, has decided to withdraw from the Proposal."

Blank stares.

"What I'm trying to say is I'm withdrawing my proposal to take you over," Square tells Tecmo, working his idea of emo for all its worth. Tecmo just smiles and says, "Hee! You're funny! Bye-eee!"

The End?

The ongoing drama of who's eating who between mega publishers Electronic Arts and Take-Two has finally been taken behind the curtain, where it should have been all along. After coming to some measure of understanding, the companies have jointly signed a confidentiality agreement, agreeing not to blab about what may or may not happen as a result of ongoing talks until, you know, something actually happens.

According to Reuters, EA has agreed as part of a regulatory filing with the SEC to not "make any further announcements regarding the status of any discussions or negotiations with Take-Two" until the pair come to some sort of mutual accord. We couldn't be happier, knowing that while the drama will likely continue to unfold for quite some time, at least we won't have to read (or write!) about it.

Just a little while ago, Take-Two announced that EA has agreed to sign a confidentiality agreement and review the object of its hostile financial affection's business plans for the next three years, turning this hostile takeover into something more ... amicable. Take-Two has also confirmed that it intends to let the clock run out on EA's $25.74 per share takeover offer, which expires today at midnight.

At face value, what this means is that EA still wants to buy Take-Two, and that the current offer still isn't reasonable to the Take-Two board. Meanwhile, the FTC will have finished its anti-trust probe on the issue this Thursday. Perhaps once EA gets a look under Take-Two's hood the two companies can come to a mutually agreed upon price to end this saga -- or some other publisher could come out of left field and scoop Take-Two up.

Listen, we don't care how this ends anymore. We don't care if EA buys Take-Two and forces them to manufacture toilet paper before shooting them into space. We worried about the potential harm to the industry like a hundred years ago, but now, we just want it to be over, so we never, ever have to write about it ever again. We got into this business to talk about potato chips that sort of look like Dr. Robotnik's head, stuff like that. This financial news makes our brains hurt.

Keeping that in mind, here's how we understand the latest missive from EA, with some help from the Silicon Alley Insider. The company says that it's actually going to let its most recent offer to purchase company shares at $25.74 a piece expire tonight at midnight, largely because it couldn't integrate Take-Two before the holiday season. But, Take-Two is offering to come and give EA a presentation that shows just how valuable it really is, if only EA can keep its trap shut about it.

So, that's the skinny. It sounds like it's sort of over and it's sort of not. Now, if someone could please fetch a napkin to catch the blood and brain goo seeping from our ear canal, we'd be forever in their debt.

With another deadline in EA's takeover bid come and gone, the industry's #2 publisher isn't quitting and has reaffirmed it still wants to gobble up Take-Two by extending its $25.74 per share offer deadline to Aug 18. EA currently has only 15% of Take-Two's stock, which translates to 11,741,339 shares. Obviously, EA needs over half the shares to complete the takeover.

Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick released a statement that the company's board is "100% committed to maximizing stockholder value," calling EA's bid "inadequate" and recommending stockholders not take the EA offer. He says that Take-Two is currently "engaged in meaningful discussions with multiple parties" and that some of those groups have been conducting due diligence (a fancy legal term for checking under a company's hood and making sure everything looks kosher). Meanwhile, the FTC is probing the deal over possible antitrust issues and should be finished by Aug. 21.

Source – EA extends deadline to Aug. 18
Source – Take-Two responds to fifth extension

In a few hours, the third deadline in Electronic Arts' takeover bid for Take-Two Interactive will pass. GamePolitics has a pretty good roundup of speculation stories regarding the deal; meanwhile, we've also heard from Forbes and go-to analyst guru Michael Pachter on the situation.

Take-Two reported that EA only controlled 8% of the company's stock following the last deadline. We expect a press release from EA bright and early tomorrow morning about its next move and a response from Take-Two a little thereafter.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter expects EA will own Take-Two when this buyout saga comes to an end, but before that, there's a few more chapters to write. GameDaily reprints the analyst extraordinaire's latest commentary where he envisions EA will increase its bid by a "modest amount" and attempt a "friendly deal." Pachter surmises Take-Two will reject the offer, especially after it recently talked about working the Wall Street corner for other opportunities.

Pachter expects EA wants this deal done before this holiday, but that Take-Two management has an incentive to wait until after April 1, 2009, due to some stock finagling (remember, in the end, this is all about money). When all is said and done, though, Pachter believes EA will acquire Take-Two. He expects once EA walks away from the table after the next rejection, and it proves there are no other bidders salivating for Take-Two, that all parties will meet again and work something out.

In the same conference call that gave us this head scratcher, Take-Two reps tap danced over a number of other issues, including their official reason for delaying GTA IV's hotly anticipated DLC, as well as any potential partnerships that may be lurking on the horizon.

Regarding the company's resolution to keep the GTA IV downloadable content out of players' hands until sometime between November 1 of this year and January 31, 2009, Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick calmly stated that the decision was based on "portfolio balancing," and that the delay was "not based on development issues." Even as our hearts ached for additional Liberty City shenanigans, Take-Two reps on the call remained enthusiastic, and for good reason, given that during the last quarter the GTA brand made up an impressive 78% of the firm's total publishing revenue.

Wire service AFP reports that last night's deadline for Take-Two shareholders to agree to EA's takeover bid passed without a peep from either side. Take-Two commented earlier Friday saying that the issue "is in [EA's] court." EA would not comment on the situation.

In non-business news, the AFP could've probably used an editor on staff who plays video games while reporting this story. Forget the semi-understandable error that it called GTA IV, a game with one of the best retail launches of all time, Grand Theft Auto IV: Liberty City Stories. Focus more on the fact that the AFP in reporting about GTA IV says, "Players score points with acts such as carjacking and killing prostitutes or police officers." Looks like Rep. Lee Terry and the AFP are getting their info from the same source.

There are a little over 12 hours to go before EA's $25.74 per share deadline for Take-Two ends at 11:59PM EDT. Analyst Michael Pachter told Forbes (via GamePolitics) that EA started off too high with its $26 a share offering and should have started around $22 back then. Meanwhile, analyst Colin Sebastian tells the San Francisco Chronicle he believes the deal is going to get "hammered out," possibly at a higher price.

As of this writing, Take-Two's stock is trading around $27 per share, but EA could be buying up all those shares with its billion dollar loan for all we know. Word on the street is that something could happen Monday, but the only certainty right now is tonight's deadline.

Electronic Arts has received commitments for a $1 billion loan from various financial institutions toward its acquisition of Take-Two. The company has up until January 9, 2009 to tap the funds in its $2 billion hostile takeover and there's been no update on the deal since Take-Two's last rejection.

GamePolitics spoke with Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter who says that after the Pandemic/BioWare acquisition that EA is a little strapped for cash. He believes the timing of this loan isn't "particularly unusual" and it could be possible that EA might make a higher bid for Take-Two.

EA has once again extended its tender offer for all outstanding shares of common Take-Two stock, pushing its previous deadline (which was to expire this evening) to 11:59PM EDT on May 16, 2008. The persistent publisher has also amended its $26-per-share offer, down to $25.74 per share after taking into consideration "additional shares to be issued to Zelnick Media" following a change in Take-Two's incentive stock plan.

During yesterday's annual Take-Two stockholder meeting, chairman of the board, Strauss Zelnick, reiterated the "inadequate" nature of the offer, expressing that the company was worth more than $26 per share. "It just doesn't stack up," he said. EA, on the other hand, continues to insist "the offer price is full and fair," noting that as of 5:00PM EDT on April 17, 2008, 6,432,787 shares of Take-Two had been tendered in and not withdrawn from the tender offer.

What happens next? Who will make the next move? And just what is the FTC up to? Tune in next time for the not-at-all riveting continuation of: The Young & the Purchasable.

The US Federal Trade Commission is seemingly still curious about EA's takeover plans, as it has sent the persistent publisher a second request for information regarding its proposed Take-Two encroachment. While the Madden house insists the transaction "would not be anti-competitive," the FTC has not yet reached the same (or any) conclusion.

The most recent development in the corporate courtship saw EA extending the deadline of its $26-per-share tender offer, which the current Take-Two management had deemed "inadequate." With the offer expiring tomorrow and the Grand Theft Auto publisher concluding its annual stockholder meeting today, we'll soon learn whether the takeover has any chance of taking off.

SCi Entertainment Group CEO Phil Rogers, whose company owns Eidos, said the publishing company needs to lose its ruth, so to speak. Speaking to MCV, Rogers said, "In today's environment of lengthening development cycles and increasing costs, we need to be more ruthless and focus on our quality titles."

Rogers also said that, on a whole, Eidos has released "too many average games which are tying up resources." We think Rogers is either really pushing for a new company direction or he's using tough words to drive up stock prices further for an oft-speculated takeover. In either sense, if he keeps to his word (that's a big "if"), it bodes well for secret project T.

Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter jumped right on Take-Two's dismissal of EA's buyout offer and says it was "ill advised." GameDaily reprints Pachter's analysis in which he goes point by point over how, in his opinion, Take-Two's board screwed up. He believes the company was positioned to get even more money out of EA if it had offered a "friendly transaction" instead of continuing its "adversarial posture."

Pachter believes that if Take-Two is holding out for more money following the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, the tactic is "naive at best, and disingenuous at worst." He states that GTA IV's sales will not ultimately impact the value of the company and that EA's $26 per share offer was done even with GTA IV sales in mind. Pachter goes on to say that if EA doesn't get controlling interesting of Take-Two with its tender offer, it will withdraw the offer and Take-Two's stock will take a 20% hit. He surmises the drop will be even worse if the market doesn't presume EA to be taking a walk around the block before picking up Take-Two later.