Activision activates the acquistion ray and Aims at Take2

[EvilBoris]

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/43003/Activision-eyeing-Take-Two-swoop

Basically there are "VERY STRONG" rumours that Activision are aiming to purchase Take Two, this would give them all of RockStar and all of the 2K IPs and Studios to milk consistently for the following 5 years.

These rumours have been further componded by the cancellation of GTA wannabe True Crime. Speculation suggests that cancellation of the title in it's near finished state is to pave the way for a new GTA game , which will be set in a far eastern city.

[Neon Ignition]

I saw on CVG the rumour of a buyout attempt may lead EA to make another move on Take Two. Personally, I think they'll allow the bids to inflate their stock price and then reject them again. Based on past movements I'd like to think Take Two take a long term look at the market and know from track record that selling up to Activision would mean short term profit and the long term termination of the company and franchises.

It'd be hilarious though if Activision making a bid directly led to them opting for EA instead.

[EDDIE M0NS00N]

Aww man this is not good news.
I have more respect than I used to for EA, just because they branched out into new fields instead of just relying on their usual sports series, but I'd rather see T2 stay independant for their own freedom & future.

[Guts]

Ewww, hell no.

[Family Fry]

Scary times could be ahead.


Activision is valued at $13bn
EA at $6.1
Take-Two $1.3

NowActivision have recenetly freed up staffing space/IP space and we know this also It came as a bit of a shock, they are offloading so quickly.
Dumping devs Bizarre, layoffs at Vicarious Visions and Freestyle, IP's gone Guitar Hero, True Crime, Tony Hawk, leaving them with Call of Duty, Transformers, Spyro, World of Warcraft from established IP stance and not a lot eles.

So what can you do? you pop down $1.3 billion for Take-Two so you can inherite, to name a few money spinners.

LA Noire
GTA
Red Dead Redemption
2k Sports Label
Max Payne
Borderlands
Bioshock
Duke Nukem
X-Com

Now If I was Kottick I would be like here take $2billion and give the shareholders an increase on the offered $25 per share that EA got denied with.

What would be exciting though would be if EA stepped back in with a counter offer and slapped it in the face of Activision but from the looks of things I seriously think Activision WANT Take-Two.

[importaku]

Activision have the reverse midas touch, everything goes to ****.

I pray they dont get take two as i dont want bioshock violating with their ****ness.

[mekanor]

This would be awful. I really hope take 2 don't go for it. We'll have a new gta/red dead every year and be longing for the days when duke nukem games had 12 year development cycles.

[sj33]

It's also worth noting that while Rockstar and its IP is wholly owned by Take-Two, the contracts of the studio's major talents – including the Houser brothers – is due to expire in 2012.

I guess we can predict what will happen if Activision take over then - hand over GTA to a team with a faster turnaround.

[Neon Ignition]

You could also guarantee that Levine would find a way free if Activision got a hold of them also.

[Guts]

Now, I'm not an economist, but how come Take-Two is valued so low ($1.3 billion)? I would have thought that the GTA brand alone is worth about that much.

[Neon Ignition]

If memory serves me correctly, Take Two has historically had profit issues in years when GTA isn't released. They've done ok lately largely due to Bioshock 1 & 2 and Red Dead but dragging out their releases has harmed their position at times which led to the previous aborted buy out attempt. It's why I'm not convinced they'd accept a buy out, with Red Dead now up and running as a franchise, Bioshock Inifinite and Xcom out next year, GTA on the horizon etc they don't have too bad a future and Activision would prove a real risk to that long term future.

[Flabio]

Didn't they still manage to post a loss on the year GTA4 came out?

[doodledude]

Now, I'm not an economist, but how come Take-Two is valued so low ($1.3 billion)? I would have thought that the GTA brand alone is worth about that much.

Well I think Rockstar own their IP's GTA / Red Dead etc. so they only have as Take Two as publishers, and I don't think they are long term deals from what I read about GTA anyway. So if Acti did buy Take Two they wouldn't own those IP's anyway.

[Guts]

According to Wikipedia, Take-Two owns Rockstar and 2K Games so wouldn't that mean that they own all of their IPs too?

[doodledude]

According to Wikipedia, Take-Two owns Rockstar and 2K Games so wouldn't that mean that they own all of their IPs too?

Yeah I would guess so, I didn't wiki it I was just going on a story I heard last year about Rockstar negotiating with Take Two about a new publishing deal, perhaps Rockstar isn't a fully owned subsidiary? I dunno!