EA says it's not desperate for Take-Two


EA’s current offer for Take-Two is set to expire on May 16 and it’s highly unlikely that EA will up the bid like T2 thinks it should. Yes, GTA IV sold more than $500 million globally making it one of the most profitable ‘entertainment’ events. If you recall, Halo 3 sold $400 million in the first week. Take-Two’s stock closed yesterday at $26.35, which is 61 cents higher than EA’s current offer of $25.74/share.

EA’s VP of corporate communications Jeff Brown spoke with GameIndustry.biz and says the current deal is “at best it’s a 50/50 proposition.” He also states that EA is not desperate to takeover T2 and that they just want to utilize their worldwide manufacturing prowess to rule the holiday season.

“EA’s not desperate,” he explained. “Part of our model for making this thing work at USD 2 billion is the assumption that if we can get this done in time to publish their games going into the Christmas holiday in ’08 – because EA has an unchallenged publishing capability around the world – we could without question sell more units of those games than they could if they were on their own.

“The passage of time serves to weaken the value and the certainty of this deal.”

Brown goes on to say that T2’s decision to wait till after GTA IV was launched is ‘mystifying’ since everyone and their mom knew it would sell well. All this nonsense because EA slipped on some stupid ratings poll. Oh well. Good luck to you, EA.