Shares of game publisher Take-Two were up Monday on the heels of positive reviews of the forthcoming video game Grand Theft Auto IV, which is being released to the public at midnight Tuesday.
Take-Two plans to launch "Grand Theft Auto IV" on Tuesday.
(Credit: Rockstar Games)Shares of the game publisher traded as high as $27.10, 3.4 percent higher than Friday's closing price. That trading price is also a good dollar a share above the offer made by Electronic Arts when it launched its hostile bid for Take-Two last month. Take-Two rejected that offer, calling it "inadequate." Take-Two owns GTA creator Rockstar.
The excitement surrounding the release has hit a fever pitch, fueled by the positive reviews. The New York Times called the game "violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured, and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun." My CNET colleague Dan Ackerman got his hands on the final shipping version and offered initial thoughts on the game's pluses and minuses in his blog.
Analysts are expecting the action-driving video game to sell more than 9 million copies and top last year's record $300 million first-week sales of Halo 3.
Check back Tuesday morning when my colleague Daniel Terdiman delves deeper into the controversy surrounding the popular video game franchise.
After a quiet few weeks, Electronic Arts and its takeover target, Take-Two Interactive Software, are back to sparring.
The latest round between the video game makers got into full swing on Friday morning, with word from EA that it would extend its Friday deadline for buying up all Take-Two shares by a month, to May 16. But even as it gave with one hand, it took away with another: EA said it would trim the per-share offering price to $25.74 from $26, given newly OK'd stock grants to Take-Two's management, ZelnickMedia.
Take-Two plans to launch "Grand Theft Auto IV" later this month.
(Credit: Rockstar Games)On Thursday, Take-Two shareholders approved a proposal to issue 1.5 million shares of restricted stock to ZelnickMedia.
As of Thursday, just 6.4 million shares of Take-Two had been tendered--that is, about 8 percent of the outstanding shares.
Take-Two, the maker of Grand Theft Auto, responded quickly Friday to EA's deadline extension/price reduction.
"The minuscule number of shares tendered, as well as the strong vote in favor of the proposals presented at our annual meeting, offer indisputable evidence that our stockholders regard our efforts to enhance Take-Two's stockholder value as superior to the EA offer," Strauss Zelnick, chairman of Take-Two, said in a statement.
Zelnick termed Friday's offer as "the same highly conditional proposal" put forth by EA a month ago, which Take-Two rejected.
The new offer continues to be inadequate and undesirable, according to Take-Two. "It undervalued the company at $26 per share, and it certainly undervalues Take-Two at $25.74," he said in the statement.
EA launched its unsolicited bid, valued at roughly $2 billion, in late February.
In midmorning trading Friday, EA's shares were up $1.08, or 2 percent, to $52.53, while Take-Two's shares were up 30 cents, or just more than 1 percent, to $26.11.
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