Electronic Arts was as polite as they could be. They invited Take Two’s management over for some coffee, some fine Italian pastry and Take Two shared a flashy presentation. Apparently, that presentation was not flashy enough as EA has finally given up — for now — on buying Take Two .The company announced that it has decided not to make a proposal to acquire Take-Two and has terminated discussions with Take-Two.
John Riccitiello, Chief Executive Officer of EA, said: “EA is tracking toward a record breaking year. We’re launching 15 new games including award-winners like SPORE, Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge, great new titles from the Sims, new family titles with Hasbro, and the highest quality slate of EA SPORTS titles on this generation of consoles. We’re also expanding beyond our core business with a series of direct-to-consumer launches including Warhammer Online.”
For its part Take Two (in a separate announcement) issued the following statement from chairman Strauss Zelnick: “We remain focused on creating value for our stockholders and our consumers. This has been our goal since EA launched its conditional and unsolicited bid six months ago, a bid which was repeatedly rejected by our stockholders. As part of that commitment, we remain actively engaged in discussions with other parties in the context of our formal process to consider strategic alternatives. We’re especially proud of the success we’ve enjoyed over the past eighteen months and we remain confident in our ability to generate value for stockholders.”
It will be interesting to see if this news has any effect on stock prices in the short term, but for now, EA and Take Two can focus on publishing their holiday line-ups.