EA withdraw Take-Two offer, good for gaming

Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 20 August 2008 06:08

Opinion and Analysis

Electronic Arts make some marvellous games, bending their might to yearly editions of many a sports simulation.  They have also been responsible for developing and publishing some of the biggest franchises in gaming history, and next month Spore hits the EA Stable.  So why is the (now withdrawn) EA push to take over Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two so bad?

Electronic Arts has a vast pool of resources to draw upon.  In both the development field as well as publishing, it is hard not to refer to EA as a Behemoth.

In recent times EA have made a bid for rival publisher Take-Two, as they have done in the past swallowing up companies such as Westwood and others has been a lucrative experience. 

A great way to get successful game franchise’s onto the EA roster, and what juicier roster carrot that Grand Theft Auto? 

Developer RockStar, responsible for some of the most controversial moments in gaming history with GTA, Manhunt and Bully all RockStar Prodgies are the staple of the Take-Two enterprise.

In December last year EA offered US$26 per share to the Take-Two Board who promptly rejected the offer.  Since then the game of cat-and-mouse has been played over a number times, crucially around the peak sales times including the late April release of GTA IV.

In June the market Analyst money was on a US$28 - $US30 bid winning the business, then there was speculation other large game companies such as Guitar Hero’s Activision or Assassin Creed’s Ubisoft would also make a play for Take-Two.  None of which emerged.

The financial too and fro came to a head this week with the combined announcements that EA were withdrawing their latest $2.0 billion offer and at the same time Take-Two offering to mediate.

"We welcome EA into our formal process and look forward to demonstrating to its board the significant strides made by Take-Two since it last undertook a detailed review of our business in early 2007," said Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick.

Surely for a company such as Take-Two, with the talented RockStar developers teaming up with the immense fire power of EA would be an unstoppable force for good in gaming?  Perhaps not.