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Breaking: Take-Two Considering Sale Of Company

Beezy said:
Get off Sony's nuts.
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get off MS and Rockstars nuts. Just because you own a console doesnt mean everything has to come out for it. If you want to play the games that come out get the conoles theyre for. If a 33/33/33 marketshare happends this generation, itll be the best for ALL gamers. GTA has to blow minds for me to buy it this gen.

during last gen i missed out on a lot of said great xbox games, but i had my share of ps2 games to keep me going well for a while. The 360 has had some great games, and other great games coming, but it hasnt proven itself to me. For microsoft to buy just about everything left and right is good for us now, but in the long run without competition were going to get more of the same.
 
Buying Take Two is roughly equivalent to buying a truckload of shit just because there was a diamond or two thrown in there at some point. Even if you manage to find the diamonds, and they're still diamonds, you've still got this big truckload of shit to deal with.

If things were shiny all around, they wouldn't be considering a sale of the company in the first place.

If anybody buys them it will be one of the megapublishers, not one of the console three. Making franchises exclusive is a great way to make even less money this generation than you did last generation.

That is of course, just my opinion. :D
 
This is very interesting. I'm really looking forward to how this pans out.

MS- Has the money, but would they take any risks after what happened with Rare?
Sony- They need the sales and any kind of good PR. They could more than break even on the deal with just the GTA sales
EA - They'll do what they do best and Maddenize(ie.new interation ever year with little improvement)
Ubisoft - Not as bad as EA, but they're getting there
Nintendo - Do they really need them when they're still selling like gangbusters?

Or will they even sell at all? I mean after GTA IV comes out and presumably sell tens of millions of copies? Only time will tell.
 
I think it's Rupert Murdoch we should be worried about. That bastard cannot be allowed to own parts of our beloved hobby.
 
In Rockstar's best interests, I think MS should buy. But if Nintendo ever took advantage of such an opportunity, this generation is officially over.
 
Nintendo doesn't give a f about buying out other companies, especially when that company is a one-trick pony. If Nintendo desired quick GTA sales, they'd release New Super Mario Bros. 2. They don't need more quad-million platinum sellers.
 
In my OPINION and with no knowledge of any insider information, a consortium of Elevation Partners (Private Equity Fund) & Electronic Arts will purchase a substantial chunk of TTWO shares (40%)... :)
 
B-Ri said:
get off MS and Rockstars nuts. Just because you own a console doesnt mean everything has to come out for it. If you want to play the games that come out get the conoles theyre for. If a 33/33/33 marketshare happends this generation, itll be the best for ALL gamers. GTA has to blow minds for me to buy it this gen.

during last gen i missed out on a lot of said great xbox games, but i had my share of ps2 games to keep me going well for a while. The 360 has had some great games, and other great games coming, but it hasnt proven itself to me. For microsoft to buy just about everything left and right is good for us now, but in the long run without competition were going to get more of the same.
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Why the hell are you preaching to me about marketshare and all this bullshit about games that you missed? When did I ever say that I owned a 360? Where did I say that I wanted GTA4 to come out for 360? Where did I say that I even wanted GTA4?

Stop assuming shit and hop the **** off my nuts.
 
I don't think it makes sense for MS to buy, unless it's simply to keep Sony from buying them... and I don't think it even makes sense for Sony to buy them.

If the company gets sold, MS will be content to let EA/Activision/someone else scoop it up. They have the leading installed base by a wide margin, and TT is in dire need of cash: GTA4 will come to the 360 either way, so why bleed money over it?
 
Anyone but EA can buy. Why, you ask? Because if EA buys it, then there won't be any other sports games except EA's.

Sony buying it would suck too, if only because I thought Microsoft's coo of Take-Two for GTAIV was a well-planned sucker punch.
 
Strike said:
This is very interesting. I'm really looking forward to how this pans out.

MS- Has the money, but would they take any risks after what happened with Rare?
Sony- They need the sales and any kind of good PR. They could more than break even on the deal with just the GTA sales
EA - They'll do what they do best and Maddenize(ie.new interation ever year with little improvement)
Ubisoft - Not as bad as EA, but they're getting there
Nintendo - Do they really need them when they're still selling like gangbusters?

Or will they even sell at all? I mean after GTA IV comes out and presumably sell tens of millions of copies? Only time will tell.
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Don't forget Elevation Partners (owner of Bioware, Pandemic).

http://www.elevation.com/EP_port.asp

Elevation Partners is a private equity firm that invests in intellectual property and media and entertainment companies.

Its founding partners include Roger McNamee, a former founding partner of Silver Lake Partners and Integral Capital Partners; Marc Bodnick, a former founding principal of Silver Lake; Fred Anderson, former CFO of Apple Computer; John Riccitiello, former president and COO of Electronic Arts; Bret Pearlman, a former senior managing director of the Blackstone Group; and U2 lead singer Bono.

Early in 2005 (as its first major venture), Elevation attempted to purchase Eidos Interactive. However, its bid failed and the video games giant was sold to rival SCi Entertainment.

On November 3, 2005, Elevation invested $300 million to create an alliance between video game developers BioWare and Pandemic Studios, making it one of the biggest independent developers in the world. It also invested $100 million in Move.com, which operates real estate information services.

In August 2006, Elevation announced that it had made an investment in Forbes Media, the parent company of Forbes Magazine and Forbes.com.

It is named afters U2's single "Elevation".
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevation_Partners
 
Ghost said:
GTA, Bully, Bioshock, Oblivion, Civ4


And they only own GTA & Bully so not really worth anyones money imo.
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What are you talking about? Irrational Studios, which makes BioShock, and Firaxis, which makes Civilization, are fully owned by Take-Two.
 
I don't think anyone would buy the full package. Look at how much Rare and Lionhead cost. Take Two would cost many more times those amounts. Probably in the 1 billion dollar range, and nobody is going to dole out that kind of money when they're going to have to remold the company anyway.

If a sale is going to happen, the only way people will buy is if it is sold in chunks.
 
Karma Kramer said:
Well Microsoft does have like a whole army of the best lawyers. So it could potencially be a match made in heaven.
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Microsoft's lawyers just lost a $1.6B case to Alcatel-Lucent. And they lost the DoJ anti-trust trial.
 
White Man said:
I don't think anyone would buy the full package. Look at how much Rare and Lionhead cost. Take Two would cost many more times those amounts. Probably in the 1 billion dollar range, and nobody is going to dole out that kind of money when they're going to have to remold the company anyway.

If a sale is going to happen, the only way people will buy is if it is sold in chunks.
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I agree. I don't think anyone is interested in buying the whole company outright. It's much too expensive. If Take Two is sold, I think we'll see it get sold off IP by IP.
 
Imagine this scenario.

Nintendo Buys Rockstar. Next day announcement of GTA4 cancelled on PS3/360 with a Wii version in early 2008;)

the net would implode.:lol
 
Xisiqomelir said:
Microsoft's lawyers just lost a $1.6B case to Alcatel-Lucent. And they lost the DoJ anti-trust trial.
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They also had one of those major Lucent cases dismissed in the last two weeks as well.
 
If we broke it into packages, who would get who?

EA and Activision would have a bidding war on Rockstar?

Ubisoft would go after 2k Sports? Or maybe EA would bid on them to to further cement their sports monopoly?
 
GTAIV starring Mario, find out how to keep Princess Peach and Daisy off of crack, while Mario has hot coffee with Pauline.
 
Xzbeat said:
Ubisoft should buy them. If they really want to the #2 game developper worldwide they'll need a sport line.
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Has Ubisoft ever been even remotely interested in sports games publishing?
Indifferent2.gif
 
Kittonwy said:
Has Ubisoft ever been even remotely interested in sports games publishing?
Indifferent2.gif
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They bought all of the code/rights for the Microsoft made games (Inside Drive, NFL Fever, Inside pitch, NHL Rivals).

They also had a Vijay Singh game planned but it has dissapeared.
 
Kittonwy said:
Has Ubisoft ever been even remotely interested in sports games publishing?
Indifferent2.gif
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CNN seems to think so

http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/19/commentary/column_gaming/?postversion=2007031910

2K Games has some notable properties in its portfolio, including games made by industry legend Sid Meier ("Civilization," "Alpha Centauri"). 2K Sports, though, would be vulnerable to sale. Ubisoft, for instance, has made it known it would like to start a sports brand to compete with Electronic Arts (Charts), makers of the popular "Madden" series. EA, meanwhile, would likely make a bid as well.
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I think Take-Two should just sell their spare parts and a few of the franchises to restructure...

Microsoft buys:
Oni franchise
Myth franchise
Max Payne franchise
The Darkness exclusivity

Ubisoft buys:
2k Games and their IPs

THQ buys:
Earthworm Jim franchise

Midway buys:
Globar Star and their IPs

Sony buys:
Bully or Manhunt, one or the other

there, that would help alleviate some of the problem. They could concentrate on Firaxis, Irrational Games, Rockstar, Venom Games, and a few others they would still have. They would also concentrate on building up a few new IPs while also hinging on the success of GTA, Civ, Bioshock, and a few others.
 
this is merely a desperation attempt by current management to save their jobs.

ttwo management am fail . . . all their stock are belong to take-over group. (And some in my hands. :D )
 
If it does go up for sale, i just don't see how MS could pass up on owning, arguably the two biggest gaming franchises in the history of video games. GTA always got a good marketing push, but imagine what it would be like with MS at the helm. Even though i would hate it, imagine if they pushed GTA to next Christmas and let the development team have an extra year to develop it to take advantage of the 360 hardware.

I'm sure that would never happen, but it would be nice for MS to release one of the games every other year this gen. They would own Christmas just about every year this gen.

This reminds me of Luke Smiths blog on his predictions for 2007. He said "Microsoft will also buy another company to place beside Rare in the "we overpaid so these guys could expand our audience" division." I'm sure he wasn't talking about Take Two, since GTA won't bring in a completely different kind of market to the 360 but it would force all GTA fans that own a PS3 or that planned on buying a PS3, to purchase a 360 instead. And i'm sure there are still a lot of fans that were waiting to jump on board the next gen bandwagon when the new GTA came out and they will have to get MS's 360 if they want to get their GTA fix.
 
Ubisoft? They are smaller than Take Two (in terms of market cap) so I don't see that happening.

If a sale of all or part of the company occurs, my bet would be on Vivendi or Microsoft.
 
i'd say sony is gonna buy them just for the fact that eveyrone says sony doesnt know how to keep third party exclusives lol. but i bet once sony buys them they are gonna make bad games-_-
 
Microsoft will not bid for Take Two. It just does not make business sense for them to purchase a third party publisher. But if they did sell off part of companies I am sure they would be more than interested in Rockstar North and other parts. I also do not think they are very interested in Sports Line since they already chose to get themselves out of it. Disney is definitely out of the running since they would not endorse all the controversial titles that Take Two releases. So we have other major media conglomerates Fox, Vivendi and GE. I would put my money on Vivendi since they already have their hands in video gaming.
 
Beezy said:
Why the hell are you preaching to me about marketshare and all this bullshit about games that you missed? When did I ever say that I owned a 360? Where did I say that I wanted GTA4 to come out for 360? Where did I say that I even wanted GTA4?

Stop assuming shit and hop the **** off my nuts.
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You didn't seem upset about efralope's usual "everyone but Sony" pathetic schtick or about other posters who listed Sony as the worst possible scenario. You chose to attack the poster who said Sony would be a good choice. That says a lot about you so I don't think his assumptions were that far off.
 
Razoric said:
You don't know shit.

It's going to be EA unless they are hard up for cash right now.
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I would have thought that News Corp would be the lead contender at the moment with some anonymous hedge fund coming up the rear.

For some very long shots........ look to either WB/Time Warner or even more of a million to one long shot....



Samsung
 
fortified_concept said:
You didn't seem upset about efralope's usual "everyone but Sony" pathetic schtick or about other posters who listed Sony as the worst possible scenario. You chose to attack the poster who said Sony would be a good choice. That says a lot about you so I don't think his assumptions were that far off.
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god you are annoying
 
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