Take 2 Board: No alternative to sale

[FantasyGhost]

Sell-off of US publisher expected to be agreed by shareholders.
An acquisition of Take 2 looks increasingly likely following a statement by the US publisher pointing out that an alternative course of action has yet to be found.

That statement comes ahead of its AGM on Thursday (March 29th) - which had been postponed for just under a week while the Board of Directors investigated the company's future strategy. The Board just last week urged shareholders to consider their options before any sales was agreed.

However, an alternative to a sell-out now looks unlikely, with the statement yesterday offering: "The Board of Directors now believes that it is unlikely to present alternative courses of action prior to the annual meeting... The company is continuing to have discussions with representatives of the shareholder group."http://www.mcvuk.com/news/26268/Take-2-Board-No-alternative-to-sale

[jaxmkii]

the only question is now who buys it?

[curryking1]

This is pretty big stuff actually, crazy.

[Shogun042]

go go go Sony, buy it!

that way you can make up for not getting GTAIV as an exclusive earlier :stirpot:

[B Dizzle]

I picture Bill, rummaging through an old sock draw. He comes across some chump change.

"Ah, that always nice when that happens. At last, I may be able to afford that pesky software publisher Peter's always yabbering on about. Should shut him at least!"

Out of the corner of his eye he spots his DS.

"Hmmmm, that reminds me................."

[jaxmkii]

^ it would be nice to know GTA4 would be optimised for PS3 but i just get the feeling GTA games from this point onward will be nothing more than a lastgen game with more shine. its tired.

[Z]

easy come, easy go. that may seem a little harsh, but other than GTA, they don't have much.and from the looks of it, GTA isn't going anywhere. on the contrary, it seems that it is coming all over the place. *hint*

maybe they'll split it in chunks and sell it here and there- having GTA being le cream du le cream. and everything else would be bread crumbs.

*waits to be told about other great Take 2 IPs*

[PSXBatou]

Really though what more does the GTA franchise have left in them? San Andreas was nothing ground breaking imho, another poster said it best i think when they said the new GTA's are just polished versions of the previous releases.

[LaLiLuLeLo]

If the next GTA got canceled I wouldn't give a tear. I've never been a fan of the series, so take two being divi'd up whichever way doesn't really concern me. I'm surprised it's come down to this considering how well their games have done.

[Jay Gee]

I like the GTA games. The first 3D one for the PS3 was an experience that I'll never forget. Hopefully, the company will be bought out by another developer and just absorbed into their staff, but they'll still be able to produce the GTA series.

[FantasyGhost]

easy come, easy go. that may seem a little harsh, but other than GTA, they don't have much.and from the looks of it, GTA isn't going anywhere. on the contrary, it seems that it is coming all over the place. *hint*

maybe they'll split it in chunks and sell it here and there- having GTA being le cream du le cream. and everything else would be bread crumbs.

*waits to be told about other great Take 2 IPs*la Créme de la Créme.

Anyway this is what happens to the ongoing lawsuits from Jack Thompson. I guess he got what he wanted, to bring take 2 down.
Also i thought Bully was a fairly good game. It sold good too.

[Sypher]

Come on people! This a feint. With the trailer coming in 2 days there going to measure the level their stock went up and say that their value as a company went up. Thus whoever "buys" them will have overpaid and Take Two make a profit for nothing. Though it would be nice for Sony to buy them, honestly why buy the whole company when all they want is 1 dev team(Rockstar).

[sikkinixx]

I wonder if Sony would make a move? Doubt it but owning the GTA franchise would be a good cash cow for Sony.

[Z]

la Créme de la Créme.


excuse my French. lol
thanks for correcting me.

and Jacky boy has nothing to do with T2. sure law suites may have hindered GTA sales to an extent, but that only proves that T2 doesn't have anything else to stand on. without Rockstar, T2 is Majesco. Bully was good, but that is R* as well. IIRC, there was a time when T2 had Visual Concept. not anymore.

personally, I don't care. the focus is on GTA and R8 will release it no matter what.

PS. and some wonder why R* and T2 are as eager to make GTA4 multiplatform...

[EvilTaru]

I wonder if Sony would make a move? Doubt it but owning the GTA franchise would be a good cash cow for Sony.

It's also much more expensive to make a GTA game than something like... for example, the getaway. They're probably better off trying to build a first-party franchise that has that kind of massive popularity and userbase loyalty but obviously that's not easy. On one hand you have the GTA sales but on the other hand R* North is not exactly a very affordable studio to keep around in the event GTA starts losing popularity and we've already seen the beginning of that with Vice City Stories, other developers are constantly trying to cannibalize the GTA marketshare, and who knows how long they can keep their team of game designers given the turmoil surrending the publisher.

Frankly I don't know if it's worth it for ANY of the major console makers to grab Take 2, even R* North by itself would fetch a king's ransom (hurhurhur I just wanted to say that), if anyone would be trying to buy I think it would be EA, if you can afford that kind of money that's two or three premium first-party franchises right there you can make with your own first-party internal teams.

[koten]

go go go Sony, buy it!

that way you can make up for not getting GTAIV as an exclusive earlier :stirpot:Sony wouldn't buy them because buying a multiplatform publisher like Take-Two and making them publish only for your system would cause massive losses. It wouldn't be worth buying them for a few exclusives.

As far as who should buy the, I'm hoping it's Ubisoft, just cause they are my favorit third party right now. Seems likely too as they've been buying pretty much anything they can get lately to increase their porfolio.

[curryking1]

Take Two also had NBA 2K6 and NFL... then they lost NFL and are trying to recuperate with that new football game....

Ya Take 2 has had it rough other than GTA I guess. I don't even know who I want them to get picked up by, eh.

[PSXBatou]

EA would probably be the likely ones to scoop them up. EA has a history of buying up struggling companies and then making their franchises in to run of the mill pieces of shit.

[Diresu]

EA...Viacom...one of them

[CreativeWriter]

As much as I'm not hyped for GTA IV, it makes sense for both Microsoft and Sony to try to buy Take 2. There's an ever-dwindling number of 3rd party, independent developers, and gobbling up more talent than the other guy might make you a winner this or next gen. Besides GTA, there's the Red Dead Revolver franchise (which I think everyone assumes is that unannounced next-gen western thing from E3 05), and new, first party tools might jump-start the GTA series. If nothing else, it would be serious embarassment to Microsoft after their GTA-tatoos and "exclusivity" comments to lose future GTAs. The PR alone would be worth Sony several million dollars... but who knows how much R* would fetch on the market. Perhaps too much.

[rpgamer_2k5]

Sony needs to acquire Take Two's 2K Sports. EA doesn't provide any extras so Sony needs to start presuring them in this area. Out with the third-party sports genre clique.

Also 2K Games is pretty interesting too. Development studios under them include:

- Firaxis Games (Sid Meier series).
- Irrational Games (BioShock, Tribes: Vengeance, SWAT 4, etc).

Grabbing 2K Games/Sports wouldn't be a bad idea at all. They carry more lucrative series than Rockstar. Heck only Rockstar North is lucrative, they have GTA and the Bully series is a potential title seeing that it moved half a million in North America.

[tribal24]

your right they do need to buy 2k sports i rather see that happen then ea buying the 2k franchise