Electronic Arts Offers $2 Billion Merger for Take-Two
Mac Gaming News - Electronic Arts Offers $2 Billion Merger for Take-Two
by , 10:25 AM EST, February 25th, 2008
Electronic Arts (EA) made public Sunday that it had offered US$2 billion in cold, hard cash for Take-Two Interactive. The offer was made public after Take-Two's management team rejected a private offer with the same terms from EA on Tuesday, February 19th. EA hopes that making the offer public will induce pressure from Take-Two's shareholders as the $26 per share price represents a 64% premium on Take-Two's stock price as of February 15th, 2008.
Much of that premium has since disappeared, however, as Take-Two's stock shot up $8.36 per share, a 48.16% gain, and is currently trading at $25.72 per share. That rise, of course, is predicated on this buyout offer, and would likely evaporate should the offer continue to be rejected or withdrawn.
EA recently returned to the Mac platform with the release of Madden NFL 08, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, Need for Speed Carbon, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and Battlefield 2142. Those five games were announced with great fanfare at Apple's 2007 World Wide Developer Conference during Steve Jobs keynote event on June 11th. EA has not announced any new Mac titles since that time, but does have a dedicated Mac platform Web page.
For its part, Take-Two offers no direct Mac support for current titles, but does license Mac ports to such companies as Aspyr.
As the Mac platform continues to grow, consolidation in the game development and publishing businesses might eventually be relevant to Mac gamers. The gaming business has seen intensifying pressures as development costs rise ever higher, even while revenues are also on the rise.
Because of those development costs, however, games need to sell, and sell big, in order to turn a profit, and this has led to large companies like EA and Activision have been gobbling up independent studios and other publishers like mad. For instance, Activision now owns Blizzard, which makes Mac versions for all of its games, including the genre-crushing World of Warcraft MMO.
Take-Two owns Rockstar Studios and its Grand Theft Auto franchise -- not available on the Mac -- which likely figures in to why EA wants to buy the company.
Observer Comments
This morning I ran across an interesting article about this. Apperently EA has a bit of a reputation for buying competitors and then closing them.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=183194
If true, it's seriously not cool.
Comments are currently closed. Please email the author instead.
Recent Headlines - Updated March 20th
- Fri, 5:55 PM
- Games - Namco Releases Match-Three Game Tinseltown Dreams to the App Store
- 5:16 PM
- News - iPad Launch Day Deadline for Developers: March 27
- 5:11 PM
- News - Steve Jobs Helps Promote Organ Donor Legislation
- 4:06 PM
- iPad - VIVmag Shows Off Interactive iPad Version in the Works
- 3:07 PM
- App Store - Microsoft Yanks Bing App From Foreign App Stores
- 2:05 PM
- iObserver - Analysts Downgrade Troubled Palm Amid Severe Revenue Drop
- 1:11 PM
- News - YouTube to Viacom: Sue Yourself
- 11:34 AM
- Product News - PocketMac for BlackBerry 5 Improves Snow Leopard Support
- 10:59 AM
- News - Apple iGroups Patent Hints at Social Networking Plans
- 10:20 AM
- Hot Forum Topic - Reader Discussion: Who Will Buy Palm?
- 9:50 AM
- News - Bharti Airtel Lands India iPhone 3GS Deal
- 9:12 AM
- News - Wintek May Be Behind Delayed iPad Launch
The Mac Observer Reader Specials
- TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com
Mac Memory and Hard Drives: MacBook Pro Memory 8GB kits $349.99! iMac Memory 4GB DDR Kits for $109.99! Mac Pro Memory 4GB Kits for $135.99! Mac Hard Drives 1.5TB Seagate SATA II for $147.99! Click Here!
- CarMD Handheld Device & Mac/PC Software System saves you time and money on car maintenance and repair. Buy at www.CarMD.com! Save $10 with code TMO2.
If you're using a Mac, then you've gotta check out Full Tilt Poker for Mac. This Full Tilt Poker bonus code does the unthinkable, it actually rewards!For the latest Apple products use Ciao, a price comparison website, to find laptops like MacBook Air. Then find the best prices on MP3 players and use our comparison tool to evaluate mobile phones like the Apple iPhone.

