New York (NY) - The board of directors at Take Two Interactive has officially rejected the $2 billion takeover bid from Electronic Arts, saying it undervalued the company and is not the right time to consider such an acquisition.

EA offered Take Two $26 per share earlier this month, offering a premium of more than 10% of the stock price at the time.  That began a series of trepidations between the two companies.  

Take Two essentially refused to consider the offer because it was too focused on the upcoming game Grand Theft Auto IV, poised to possibly be its biggest release yet.  The publisher said it was "absolutely the wrong time" for an acquisition offer.

EA then took the bid directly to the shareholders, causing many to label it as a "hostile takeover" bid, but Take Two put into place measures that stifled that possibility.

However, Take Two said in a press release that after GTA IV is released it will explore new strategic moves "which may include  a business combination with third parties or with EA, remaining independent, or other strategic or financial alternatives that could deliver higher stockholder value than the current EA offer."



Take Two also decided to push back its annual shareholder meeting by a week, from April 10 to April 17, as a result of the recent events.  GTA IV is slated for release on April 29.

Damn...

Mar 26, 2008 13:02     

They are having second thoughts... I sure hope they don't dissolve into EA completely, or else this can be the last decent GTA... Oh i can foresee it... "GTA: Underground XIX"
phil report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

re: Damn...

Mar 26, 2008 14:40     

I just replayed NFS underground 2 this week. I consider it a good game. The only thing that might get dissolved is the middle-finger attitude that Take Two has always shown to critics of violent videogames
chewbie report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

I was so excited for a sec...

Mar 26, 2008 15:19     

Then I read they are going to consider "new strategic moves" after the GTA IV release. Such a bummer. EA is such a joke of a software company these days. I would hate to see a good franchise yet again destroyed by tweak and re-release EA.
Action Jackson report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Good

Mar 26, 2008 15:20     

I hate EA. Of course they wanted to buy out Take-Two. One of the most profitable franchises is coming out with a new game and they are pissed because they don't have something as good. So their answer is to buy them out and take their profits. Bastards!
Jason report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

If I had the money, I'd buy Take2 and save it from ...

Mar 27, 2008 05:52     

If I had the money, I'd buy Take2 and save it from EA. Maybe then I'd buy EA too. And maybe MS... but as I don't have that kind of money, I will just not give them my kind of money :)
Virtualban report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Everyone that owns take2 stock should sue take2

Mar 27, 2008 11:34     

The value has been frozen due to this pending offer. And if they completely reject it, it will send the stock falling. Take has killed the value for every stock holder, and if take2 didn't want to answer to stock holders, they shouldn't have greedily taken all that stock holder money during the IPO.
therooster report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1