EA proposes buyout of Take-Two

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:08 am

It's over for Take Two.
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*Update*
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=93396

Take Two willing to negotiate with EA

Take-Two has labelled Electronic Arts' USD 2 billion buy-out offer as "inadequate" and "opportunistic", as EA attempts to take advantage of the struggling Grand Theft Auto publisher, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

Take-Two's board rejected EA's offer last week, prompting Electronic Arts to yesterday reveal details of the proposed deal and to publish the full letter sent to the company from EA CEO John Riccitiello.

"We believe EA's unsolicited offer is highly opportunistic and is attempting to take advantage of our upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto IV, one of the most valuable and durable franchises in the industry," said the company.

"Electronic Arts' proposal provides insufficient value to our shareholders and comes at absolutely the wrong time given the crucial initiatives underway at the Company," commented Strauss Zelnick, executive chairman of Take-Two.

"In addition to undervaluing key elements of our business, EA's proposal fails to recognize the value we are building through our ongoing turnaround efforts, which will further revitalize Take-Two."

While Take-Two has rejected the initial offer from Electronic Arts, the company has said that it will be willing to enter discussions following the release of Grand Theft Auto IV on 29th April.

"We believe this offer demonstrated our commitment to pursuing all avenues to maximize stockholder value, while we believe that EA's refusal to entertain this path is evidence of their desire to acquire Take-Two at a significant discount, whereas we believe this value rightly belongs to our stockholders," added Zelnick.

EA will be holding a conference call this evening to discuss the acquisition attempt.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:36 am

Sad news for gamers everywhere...

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:30 am

As much as this news sucks, would this open the door for MVP to return?

I will definitely be keeping my copy of NBA 2k8.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:04 am

Brando70 wrote:As much as this news sucks, would this open the door for MVP to return?

I will definitely be keeping my copy of NBA 2k8.

I would venture to say YES to both. The bigger question is will Ben Brinkman go back to EA?

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:29 pm

TT is holding out for a right price but the market is already valuing it close to what EA has offered. Stock is up $8-9 this morning.

Will EA use the assets it acquires, you know like the NBA 2K code and so on?

Or just bury them and then they won't have to worry about paying for exclusive licenses?

The 2K Sports developers will either have to join EA after the takeover or look for jobs in other genres of gaming, since 2K Sports was about the last remaining alternative.

By the time the NFL license expires, there won't be expertise left outside of EA to make NFL games. A would-be contender would have to start from scratch, hire developers who will need years to build up a competing NFL game.

That might not be such a bad thing, to bring fresh ideas in. But it might be two generations away or at the tail end of the next gen.

Oh well, maybe the Backbreaker guys can build some kind of momentum, or just hang around long enough, cultivating their engine.

matthewk · Post by **matthewk** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 1:25 pm

If a deal is made, I think EA kills off what 2k has and just uses their ideas for their own brands. I can see them killing off the NBA 2K series and then incorporating a lot of what they did better into Live. Then again, I would not be surprised if they just killed it off and left Live as is.

It looks like I may be getting a few more years out of NFL 2k5 and I may need to pick up a 2K NBA game when I need a hoops fix.

All this is really going to do in the end is push me away from sports games. I'm already starting down that path, and something like this would speed it along.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 1:48 pm

Matt,

I'm in the same boat as you. This deal only lessens my interest in sports video games. If and when The Show goes away, that's when I think I hang up my controller.

I'm so sick and tired of the exclusivity deals.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:04 pm

sportdan30 wrote: If and when The Show goes away, that's when I think I hang up my controller.

I'm so sick and tired of the exclusivity deals.

The show is the only game left for EA to kill...I doubt that they dont know that.

Brando is right on about saving your copies of 2k8 games...

Going to buy a copies of NBA and NHL...

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:19 pm

Yep, I think I'm with Dan.. unless EA can show me games like NHL 08 with other sports.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:21 pm

I'm amazed that both Sony and MS allowed EA's growth to fester and grow. I'm also amazed watching both MS and Sony not wanting to upset EA because it means they won't get their games.

As someone else said they should just get it over with and introduce their own console. They are already more powerful and influential than Sony and Microsoft combined.

WillHunting · Post by **WillHunting** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:26 pm

Rodster wrote:I'm amazed that both Sony and MS allowed EA's growth to fester and grow. I'm also amazed watching both MS and Sony not wanting to upset EA because it means they won't get their games.

As someone else said they should just get it over with and introduce their own console. They are already more powerful and influential than Sony and Microsoft combined.

I don't know if EA will make their own console. It is alot of money to invest in, I think EA will be more profitable just publishing games to all hardware producer (suckers) and just reap the profit by selling millions of copies.

I am not saying it won't happen.... if EA thinks it can make more money coming out its own console, then obviously, it can happen.

GTHobbes · Post by **GTHobbes** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 2:57 pm

Don't the monopoly laws in this county mean anything? With the sports videogame market being a multi-billion dollar a year industry, how can government regulators stand by and watch 1 company single handledly remove all viable competitors from the market?

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:04 pm

http://dubiousquality.blogspot.com/

As usual something fishy in the TT boardroom.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:04 pm

Brando70 wrote:As much as this news sucks, would this open the door for MVP to return?

I will definitely be keeping my copy of NBA 2k8.

How do we know if MVP returns it'll be as good as the last version on the last generation systems? I would think they would probably need to start over on the 360 and PS3. That'll probably mean another 2-3 years until they get the game right.

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:09 pm

The monopoly laws do mean something, but they don't apply here. Any company can make any sports game they like. They simply cannot use the intellectual property from sports EA has agreements with.

It sucks for sports gamers, but it's not illegal.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:23 pm

Brando70 wrote:
It sucks for sports gamers, but it's not illegal.

Yep no law against being filthy scumbags.

EA sorta reminds me of Micheal Corleone in GFII..." I dont feel I need to wipe everyone out. Just my enemies."

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:10 pm

It sucks for sports gamers, but it is a good business decision.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:34 pm

I wish some company would have some balls and start to go the Konami route.

If there was a market for a soccer game, why wouldn't a similar model work for baseball, football, hockey, or stock car racing.

Maybe it's too much of a risk or in this business they really fear EA Sports.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:49 pm

JRod it's been tried and it's had little success and like you said it's a major risk to try to bring out a game like that. APF2K8 is the most recent example that gamers want the real thing with real teams and players.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Mon Feb 25, 2008 5:04 pm

Rodster wrote:JRod it's been tried and it's had little success and like you said it's a major risk to try to bring out a game like that. APF2K8 is the most recent example that gamers want the real thing with real teams and players.

No that's the true. The WE model hasn't been used. APF though legends with strict customization would be a success. The legends was but it was hurt by the lack of features and poor customization.

I'm talking about WE. When it first came here, it was mostly generic. I think it had some real players but I remember most of the names being Backhem.

The stopped the game for a while then after WE6 they finally brought it back to the states.

I think the only way a sports game is going to succeed if EA buys up all the licensed it to give the gamer an unprecedented amount of control in the game. From editing, to AI, this might be where we see the next breakthrough. It won't come from EA though.

matthewk · Post by **matthewk** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 9:50 am

JRod wrote:I think the only way a sports game is going to succeed if EA buys up all the licensed it to give the gamer an unprecedented amount of control in the game. From editing, to AI, this might be where we see the next breakthrough. It won't come from EA though.

In English please. It reads like you changed thoughts in the middle of a sentence.

GTHobbes · Post by **GTHobbes** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 11:35 am

Someone will get EA someday for something...they always do. Here's a class action that's allowed to go to trial against Microsoft. Realistically, M$ will probably end up settling to avoid long, costly and ultimately uncertain litigation. The bigger EA becomes, the deeper the pockets get.

http://productliability.law360.com/Secu ... x?id=48104

GTHobbes · Post by **GTHobbes** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 11:49 am

Good to see industry analysts using the "M" word, and for telling it like it is:

http://kotaku.com/360452/pachter-ea-wan ... v-is-gravy

Again, and the monopoly laws don't apply because...??

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 12:07 pm

GTHobbes wrote:Good to see industry analysts using the "M" word, and for telling it like it is:

http://kotaku.com/360452/pachter-ea-wan ... v-is-gravy

Again, and the monopoly laws don't apply because...??

Why is this so hard to understand? I'll type slower this time....

Any company can make a sports game on any sport. EA is not doing anything to prevent them from doing so. The only thing those companies cannot do is make games that use the intellectual property that EA has purchased. That is not a monopoly in the legal sense. These leagues are granting EA their IP exclusively. It would be like suing a publisher for other publishers to put out Tom Clancy books. Clancy owns his IP, and he can grant it exclusively to whichever publisher he wants. Anyone can write a spy book, they just can't use his characters and creations.

Also, there are plenty of videogame publishers out there, so it's not like EA is monopolizing the whole market, even if they are the biggest.

This is really a market problem. The market has not historically supported unlicensed sports games. EA may wind up being the only player in town because of those market factors, but that's not a legal monopoly, as anyone can release those sports games without the league licenses (the way APF and Front Office Football have done).

Again, I'm not happy about this, but the only thing anyone could do is not buy EA Sports games.

kevinpars · Post by **kevinpars** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:33 pm

My best guess would be that EA would kill off the 2K sports franchises and maybe keep some of the top end talent. But one thing that would not translate from 2K to EA is the 2K control system. It is clear from everything that Peter Moore says that his 'vision' for sports games is "pick up and play" and I imagine he would be opposed to anything that would increase the learning curve for sports games.

That can be both good and bad. While I personally preferred the 2K version of hockey this year, I thought the control scheme was far to complex while the EA game was almost perfect in that you could pick up and play and be competitive almost immediately, yet there was the opportunity to improve once you learned the subtleties of the stick.

If you had asked me where i thought that the franchise modes of sports games would be in year 3 (or in some cases 4) of the new generation of consoles, I would have guessed that stat tracking would be almost overkill and that the user could see yearly and career records for every player, that there would be a full Hall of Fame feature as well as record tracking by franchise. I certainly would not have guessed that none of the sports games even track the yearly championship. Why have a 30 year franchise if you can't get to year 30 and at least see who won the championships in years 1-29?

I also would have guessed that by now NCAA Football would not only have all the Division I and II teams, but that you could play out the D2 national championship series. As it is, you couldn't even replicate the Michigan -App State game.

I am not going to do anything as dramatic as giving up gaming, but it is dropping down the list of things I enjoy to do in my spare time.