Electronic Arts' hostile bid for Grand Theft Auto producer Take-Two Interactive appears to have ended quietly this week.
Shortly after EA failed to make an attractive-enough offer, Take-Two's Grand Theft Auto IV shattered all-time launch sales records, lending support to Chairman Zelnick's argument that the bid undervalued the company.
(Credit: Rockstar Games)The game maker, whose reduced acquisition bid of $25.74 a share was rejected as inadequate last month, had set Friday as the extended deadline for it to buy up Take-Two's shares. The day came and went without action regarding the takeover from either company.
The updated offer, rejected by Take-Two on April 18, continued to be inadequate and undesirable, according to Chairman Strauss Zelnick at the time. "It undervalued the company at $26 per share, and it certainly undervalues Take-Two at $25.74."
Since then, the record-breaking launch of Grand Theft Auto IV has likely proven Zelnick correct, with first-week sales of $500 million. The game sold 3.6 million copies its first day on the market, shattering the previous all-time launch sales record held by Microsoft's Halo 3.
Take-Two shares were priced slightly above $27 in after-hours trading Saturday morning.
"There is nothing going on right now," Take-Two spokeswoman Meg Maise told AFP on Friday afternoon. "It is in (EA's) court."
Why didn't anybody think of this before? Grand Theft Auto franchise developer Rockstar Games has teamed up with Amazon.com in an interesting joint promotion.
May we suggest Texas apocalyptic-guitar instrumental band Explosions In The Sky for this scene?
(Credit: Rockstar Games)When GTA IV comes out on April 29 and you are cruising around inside doing whatever evil deeds come to mind, you might like a particular song playing on one of the radio stations in the game. Well, you will be able dial a number on your in-game virtual cellphone and receive a text message with artist and title information. And if you've signed up to be part of Rockstar's upcoming social network, you'll get a real-world e-mail with a link to buy the song on Amazon.com. All songs are DRM-free MP3s, so you can play them on any device, including your Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3--outside the confines of the game.
Rockstar is curating the 150-plus songs bundled with the game, which will include oddities and a few exclusives, including one number from hip-hop artist Nas. Now imagine if Rockstar used the online capabilities of the game consoles to update the in-game radio playlists silently. That's a new form of music distribution that might actually reach younger listeners.
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