Gawker: valleywag, take-two interactive

Electronic Arts gives Take-Two shareholders the Yahoo flu

Jackson West — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 16:00:00 EDT

Take-Two Interactive, the marketer of Grand Theft Auto and various sports videogames, has watched its stock price plummet to $16.99 on the news that Electronic Arts has decided to quit trying to buy the company for $26 a share. Much like Yahoo's drop after Microsoft took an offer off the table, Take-Two's shares are headed south of where they were when EA initially made an offer. I'm counting the days until a third company meets the same fate and I get to write the obligatory trend piece.

Parental advocates rejoice: Thai teen claims "Grand Theft Auto" inspired taxi driver murder

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:20:00 EDT

Bangkok police arrested a Thai teenager "after he was found trying to steer a cab backwards out of a Bangkok street with the severely wounded driver in the back seat," reports Reuters. The kid told police he didn't mean to kill the driver and only stabbed him to death after he fought back. In Take-Two Interactive's Grand Theft Auto IV, the game that the kid later said inspired his attack, players don't always have to kill drivers to steal their cars. "He said he wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game," said chief police investigator Veeravit Pipattanasak. New Era Interactive Media, which distributes Grand Theft Auto in Thailand, has asked retailers to remove the game from their shelves.

CollegeHumor founder won't sue Take Two Interactive for patent infringement

Jackson West — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:40:00 EDT

Ricky Van Veen, founder of sophomoric entertainment site CollegeHumor, was surprised to see one of his inventions pop up in a box of promotional schwag for the new Grand Theft Auto IV game from Take Two Interactive. No, it wasn't some nifty new electronic gadget, but a simple foam fan hand — in the shape of the "shocker." Yes, the savvy Van Veen actually patented the thing. But no, he won't be suing:

Lucky for them, they're one of CollegeHumor's biggest advertising clients. Though I must admit a high drama court case over "the shocker" would be a funny thing to see.

Welcome back, now go buy Take-Two

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:40:00 EDT

Electronic Arts has hired Eric Brown, an EA veteran, back from McAfee as CFO to replace the abruptly departing Warren Jenson. This comes as the company is trying to buy rival Take-Two Interactive. [WSJ]

CNET reporter, still employed for time being, asks EA and Take-Two to stop fighting in public

Jackson West — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:00:00 EDT

Industrial-sized video game publisher Electronic Arts is in negotations to buy the only real competitor in the sports game market Take-Two Interactive. Take-Two's shareholders want more than EA is offering and may be stalling until the release of the latest Grand Theft Auto installment. The two companies have taken their negotiations public by issuing dueling press releases — and CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman is tiring of it.

Get your highly-paid keisters into a meeting room. Order some takeout. Lock the doors. And work this out yourselves.

With all due respect to Terdiman, Valleywag loves it when companies air their grievances in public. It's like hip-hop MCs exchanging dis rhymes, but with less rhythm and poetry! So to everyone on the EA and Take-Two negotiating teams, feel free to send us anonymous tips and call each other the dirty, backstabbing double-dealers you know you want to. (Photo by AP/Paul Sakuma)

EA CFO quits even as Goldman predicts his company's Take-Two acquisition will go through

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:40:00 EDT

Electronics Arts CFO Warren Jenson has unexpectedly quit the company, public filings revealed yesterday. He'll continue to cash a $595,000-a-year salary through September 30, unless he lands a new job first, the FT reports. Jenson's abrupt departure comes as EA pursues an increasingly hostile bid to acquire rival videogame maker Take-Two Interactive. The bid, which Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Wienkes today predicted would end up successful, was largely CEO John Riccitiello's project, according to the AP.

Electronic Arts' Take-Two takeover made simple: It's about sports and cars

Mary Jane Irwin — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:40:34 EST

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello isn't content to sit idly by twiddling his thumbs until retirement. He'd rather spend as much as possible to keep his company relevant to the vanishing-attention-span generation of males whose spending pads his pension. They're interested in fast cars and sports — which makes Riccitiello keenly interested in EA rival Take-Two. Riccitiello has placed a $2 billion bid on Take-Two Interactive, the notorious publisher of the Grand Theft Auto series.

After Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two's executive chairman, refused to play, Riccitiello took the proposal public Sunday. Riccitiello is looking to boost gross profits, which nine months into fiscal year 2007 have seen a 20 percent dip. Take-Two's Grand Theft Auto is thought to be one of the most lucrative franchises in videogames. The deal would grant EA rights to the series, whose latest edition, Grand Theft Auto IV, is slated for an April 29 release. The pending launch, of course, is why Riccitiello is desperate to close the deal now — and why Zelnick is calling the bid "opportunistic."

Its timing may seem curious. The proposed takeover comes on the heels of the $860 million acquisition of BioWare and Pandemic Studios last October. But since then, Activision has merged with Vivendi's Blizzard. And videogames are a fast-moving business. Games age almost as quickly as their customers.

Besides GTA, Take-Two's 2K Sports division is the only real competitor to EA Sports. Take-Two also owns a few other highly regarded titles, including Bioshock, but none of them compare to GTA and the sports titles. Take-Two, of course, isn't in the best financial health. It's been in the red since 2005 — its latest loss totaled $138.4 million in 2007. It's also been plagued by legal trouble thanks to a sex mini-game embedded in Grand Theft Auto III: San Andreas.

Hot coffee, fast cars, and a class-action lawsuit

Mary Jane Irwin — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 16:51:28 EST

Oh the steamy summer of 2005, otherwise remembered as the "Hot Coffee" scandal. Take-Two Interactive ushered in a new wave of videogame scrutiny after shipping Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas with a sexual intercourse minigame hidden in the code. (Players had to actively hack the game to get to it.) Grandmother Florence Cohen filed a class-action suit. Take-Two (Rockstar's parent company) has finally quit court and is offering anyone offended by the minigame is offering an exchange: the old, hacked version of San Andreas for a new, sex-free, copy and $35. Because virtual sexual encounters in a M-rated game (over 17) are the only thing about Grand Theft Auto which could potentially damage a 14-year-old.