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Take-Two still not giving in to EA

Colin Temple — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:05:25 +0000

Electronic Arts is still hoping to acquire Take-Two Interactive, the publishers of Grand Theft Auto IV. This week, they renewed their bid of $25.74 U.S. to buy the company.

The offer, which had expired last Friday, values the video game publisher at over $2 billion. EA has been pushing to take over the firm for months, and Take-Two previously insisted that the company wait until GTA IV hit the streets.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick can only shake his head at the deal. He says that when the board originally received the offer back in March, they “unanimously determined to be inadequate and contrary to the best interests of Take-Two’s stockholders.”

The company isn’t closed-minded on selling, says Zelnick. “The Board is committed to maximizing stockholder value and is exploring all strategic alternatives to do so. We said we were willing to begin formal discussions with interested parties on April 30th, following the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV, and we have in fact begun that process.”

The huge success of Grand Theft Auto IV, and a new Bioshock movie deal with Universal are raising the profile, and price, of Take-Two. If EA hopes to acquire the company, they may have to raise their bid or make some adjustments to their strategy.

Take Two says ‘no thanks’ to EA

Colin Temple — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 03:04:39 +0000

Take-Two Interactive has turned down an offer from Electronic Arts, according to a statement from the firm. EA reportedly offered to buy the firm at $26 U.S. per share.

Electronic Arts has been attempting to acquire Take-Two for some time, but the firm is determined to hold out until they release Grand Theft Auto IV in a month. Take-Two says they will revalue their stock options after the game is released.

The company says it will discuss “strategic alternatives” and “business combination” options with interested parties.

EA plans to offer game music updates

Colin Temple — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 03:28:13 +0000

Electronic Arts is planning to pay a little more attention to the soundtracks for its games. As a part of its “Trax” initiative, which has the game publisher paying more attention to in-game audio, the company plans to offer downloadable music that can be swapped with the background tunes for its games.

How useful the service will be probably depends on what console you’re playing on. The Xbox 360 already has the feature to import audio off of CDs or stream live music from a Windows PC — and both types can be played as the background music for pretty much any Xbox 360 game. In that case, it’s probably better to buy your music online or in-store so you’re not limited to playing it in your games.