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EA Proposes to Acquire Take-Two for $2.0 Billion
On Sunday, EA announced that it has proposed to purchase Take-Two for $26 per share in cash, which is equal to approximately $2.0 billion and an 64% percent premium on the going rate for the stock over the last 30 days. The move is bound to give the publisher near-complete dominance in the gaming world, giving them complete control of some of the best IPs in the industry. EA have cheekily set up a takeover website, eatake2.com, which outlines the takeover details.
"Our all-cash proposal is a unique opportunity for Take-Two shareholders to realize immediate value at a substantial premium, while creating long-term value for EA shareholders," said John Riccitiello, CEO of EA. "Take-Two's game designers would also benefit from EA's financial resources, stable, game-focused management team, and strong global publishing capabilities."
However, this is not going to be pretty for us gamers, with EA's current strategy of releasing sequels every year not only hurting the pockets of gamers, but also perhaps the quality of it's games. Hopefully, EA can see that some of the best titles in the industry are those which have been given a reasonable amount of time to ferment.
Also, we must remember this is just a proposal, and Take-Two recently dismissed a $25 per share merger from EA, so perhaps it might not happen, if we're lucky. If it does happen though, it raises a huge question for the future of the industry, with less competition and too many "super-publishers", could creativity be throttled in favor of regular yearly sequels?
I don't mean to be rude or anything, but...
"The move is bound to give the publisher near-complete dominance in the gaming world"
Really? Near-complete dominance? I think Activision-Blizard would have something to say about that. It seems to me that this is a reactionary move on EA's part, their attempting to retake the thrown of #1 publisher.
In any case, EA has gotten a lot better recently. Their supposedly letting developers keep their corporate culture, and on the game side of things, are releasing some pretty cool stuff. To name a few off the top of my head, look at Skate, look at Burnout, look at Spore, look at
Crysis, look at their partnership with Valve.
Who wants yearly full-priced GTA expansion packs with 5% new content? Not me...
Posted by Asdf at February 24, 2008 11:28 PMI hate corporations and I hate mergers. It's enough to make me never buy another EA product again just to balance things out (after I get Spore.)
Seriously, I even have to reconsider Spore just because I truly fear EA is becoming a true Monopoly. It's dangerous to say this but capitalism is going to far and I don't know if we can stop it now. Video game monopolism is just a drop in the bucket compared to what's happening in other industries.
Posted by Ryuukuro at February 27, 2008 8:47 PMPlease keep your comments relevant to this entry: inappropriate or purely promotional comments may be removed. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br> tags.