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Take Two "burning cash at an alarming rate".. GTA4 expected Fall 2007
- Thread starter argon
- Start date
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Alucard said:
Right. The second a black man gets some shine people gotta start to hate.
DarienA said:
They've been on my "soon to die" list since...hmmm...GTA III catapulted them to heights they never desserved. I won't miss them EXCEPT for the fact that they bought out TDK for their "child's line" of games that never came. Say what you want, but after the Robotech 64 debacle, the TDK Robotech was a Macross lovers dream and TDK *really* did their research on this title...then they were making a He-Man 4 player Smash Bros. type game but BAM TT bought them and now TDK's future potential is squandered.
They've been unable to get any of the developers they own besides Rockstar North to create a continually successful franchise (Max Payne was a hit but I'm pretty sure the second one flopped). I thought the midnight club games were popular but that's an overly crowded genre.
I think what really killed them was buying Visual Concepts only to lose the permission to put out an NFL game each year. NBA and MLB games don't sell nearly as much, and this strange deal they have with MLB still allows all the first party developers to make baseball games.
I wouldn't be surprised if Activision tries to buy DMA if/when Take 2 goes down in flames. True Crime 2 flopped and they've been buying developers (Infinity Ward) or at least trying to (id Software) for the past few years.
I think what really killed them was buying Visual Concepts only to lose the permission to put out an NFL game each year. NBA and MLB games don't sell nearly as much, and this strange deal they have with MLB still allows all the first party developers to make baseball games.
I wouldn't be surprised if Activision tries to buy DMA if/when Take 2 goes down in flames. True Crime 2 flopped and they've been buying developers (Infinity Ward) or at least trying to (id Software) for the past few years.
Ford Prefect
GAAAAAAAAY
Amused_To_Death
Member
GTA has several years left in it. Don't forget they now own Firaxis, Irrational Games, along with the sports studios like Visual Concepts. Midnight Club, Max Payne, Mafia, Manhunt, Red Dead Reolover are all popular franchises with some legs in them, the talks of them failing anytime soon are hilariously premature...I think their problem is that they're trying to grow too fast for their own sake, they're relatively very young as a publisher!
Warm Machine
Member
bumpkin said:
That or they know they will sell at least 2 million copies for a quicky port.
UltraMarioMan
Member
These are the same guys who made Body Harvest on the N64 right?
Operations
Member
How can a company with such big hits can be in financial trouble? How in the name of Nabudoconosor can they only have 75 million left?
Amused_To_Death
Member
Operations said:
Okay first of all, they have over $100 mil of cash in the bank as of now. They are a profitable company, meaning they're not going to run out of cash unless something horrible happens to them, like the U.S. govt rules they can't produce mature games anymore.
Second, they spent heavily over the last several quarter to acquire studios and sports licenses, the MLB license was a biggie, I believe. The article is the opinion of a Wall Street analyst who's been know to be anti Take Two and Rockstar.
xsarien said:
NEVER BURN MONEY
Gheritt White had been floating six feet off the floor for
three weeks. His feet and hands tingled, and his eyes burned
with the flames of a dying fire. He had last heard someone
speak to him as the cell door slammed shut. He didn't
remember what the uniformed man had said. The words had
bounced off the bars of the cell and rang through Gheritt's
ears. Gheritt had been talking to himself for the last few
minutes, something about getting caught, but then his ears
began to tingle just like his hands.
He looked at his hands, but the fire in his eyes made him
blink. Tears came, and when he opened his eyes again, his
hands had been melted into fleshy pancakes that wafted in the
ripples flowing over the fire in his eyes.
"Damn cell," he heard someone say. "Last time I had a good
meal was three days ago. The food they feed you in here could
kill a lab rat."
Rats. He had remembered something about rats. But his ears
began to ring again and the voice speaking to him faded off
into the background of his mind. In its place, there was a
new sound, the clapping of hands together. He blinked hard to
made out his hands again. They had disappeared; his arms
connected at the wrists.
He thought back to the time he went ice skating on a pond. He
remembered the sound of his skates on ice, a gentle scrapping.
Scrapping away now inside his ears, trying to tear down his
thoughts. There had been a woman with a white fur tube over her
hands. Her wrists were like his now. The wrists of
someone who had tried too many times to clap his hands. He
had been applauding everyone else in life, but never himself.
The hands, like himself, had been put into prison, and he
didn't know why.
"Can't sleep in here, if the smell of this musty bedroll
doesn't make you sick, then the sound of the rats chewing
inside the walls will keep you up. You'll wake up from your
dreams to their little chomping. Sometimes I think that they
are chewing me..." The voice was coming from inside the cell,
but Gheritt couldn't see anyone.
Gheritt hadn't always been alone, he could vaguely recall from
somewhere inside his broken mind that there had been friends,
lovers, murderers.
He recalled a theory he had come up with after a bloody
schoolhouse brawl. The theory was simple. At some point in
time, everyone was a murderer. Whether or not they ever felt
remorse, they had all wanted someone dead. Hatred. Everyone
knew the feeling of hatred. Gheritt had known hatred on that
schoolyard. His beater had laughed at their bloody faces, a
laugh which now echoed through his ears, rhythmically blocking
out the other voice in the cell.
The schoolyard was usually a place where Gheritt and his
friends would play football or foursquare or something, but
today, there was an edge. Maybe everyone had eaten cereal
with milk that was about to go bad, or maybe there was too
much smoke in the air from the wheeling hubcap factory.
Football had been extremely rough. Gheritt had gone to play
foursquare after he got tackled by five boys who weren't his
friends. But today, even foursquare had an evil twist. The
top square today had become habituated to making fun of the
first square. Gheritt had decided that it was an evil day.
When his beater started to push him around, he exploded.
Hatred flowed from his eyes, his hands and feet began to
tingle. All of his coordination left him, and his face was
beaten to a bloody mess. The schoolyard disciplinarian had
been slow to notice the ensuing carnage, and she didn't really
care anyway.
Gheritt would have killed him if he could have. He would have
torn out the eyes of his beater. He would have made him pay
for his abuses. But his hands had begun to tingle. He
couldn't feel his feet and he had begun to float off the
ground.
Everyone was a murderer, but Gheritt couldn't remember his
reason for why that was so. He thought it was something about
hands, the passion for justice. His hands and feet had begun
to tingle, and he was floating farther off the floor. He
looked up from his hands, and he saw the bars of the cell,
moving left and right, opening wide and then closing shut
like the surf coming up a beach. Every time that he thought
he would be safe, the bars crested up, the opening closing,
the wave rising, crashing. The result would be the same, he
would never escape. The bars would crush him, break his back.
He could feel the roughness of the sand under his palms, for
all the motion of the waves around him, his hands had come to
rest serenely upon the ocean floor. His body tossed and
flipped, pivoting about his hands under which he could feel
the safe, coarse sand. The wave crashed one final time, he
landed upside down, his hands thrown clear from the sandy
bottom, the rush of the water filling his ears, his nose, his
mouth, the sound of crashing water cascading down from his
feet to his head- penetrating his mind to tear down thoughts.
Like the sand castle he had built to withstand the tide, his
thoughts came down around him.
Gheritt had a good life, so much time, so much time. He had
loved swimming, turning, beating. He had loved the tingle in
his hands and feet, his inability to kill his nemesis. Once
he had fallen down the stairs, and just for a moment, his
hands came to rest on the carpet of the stairs. In that
instant, his body had frozen, floating over the stairs, safe
from falling, but the moment didn't last. The ocean crashed
about him, his hands torn free from the sandy bottom, his body
flipping, falling.
But now he levitated farther up, his hands still tingling. He
began to float through the bars, he expected the instant of
safety as his hands found footing, but that moment did not
come, the bars squeezed his body. His chest tingled. As he
fell through his cage, his legs tingled. The fire in his eyes
had become a cold wind, he blinked away tears. He tumbled
through the bars, spinning and turning, he could see a man.
In his hand he saw a small white rat. A pounding, the
crashing waves in his ears became rhythmical, hard. The man
was beating the rat against the floor. Pounding, pounding.
Blood covered his hands, the man's hands tingled. He had
broken them on the floor of the cell. Disciplinarian, lover,
murderer. Gheritt looked back into the cell. He saw himself,
disciplinarian, lover, murderer. He had killed his nemesis.
The rat lay dead in his bloody hands. At last, he held the
throat of his beater.
He escaped into the waves.
The waves.
three weeks. His feet and hands tingled, and his eyes burned
with the flames of a dying fire. He had last heard someone
speak to him as the cell door slammed shut. He didn't
remember what the uniformed man had said. The words had
bounced off the bars of the cell and rang through Gheritt's
ears. Gheritt had been talking to himself for the last few
minutes, something about getting caught, but then his ears
began to tingle just like his hands.
He looked at his hands, but the fire in his eyes made him
blink. Tears came, and when he opened his eyes again, his
hands had been melted into fleshy pancakes that wafted in the
ripples flowing over the fire in his eyes.
"Damn cell," he heard someone say. "Last time I had a good
meal was three days ago. The food they feed you in here could
kill a lab rat."
Rats. He had remembered something about rats. But his ears
began to ring again and the voice speaking to him faded off
into the background of his mind. In its place, there was a
new sound, the clapping of hands together. He blinked hard to
made out his hands again. They had disappeared; his arms
connected at the wrists.
He thought back to the time he went ice skating on a pond. He
remembered the sound of his skates on ice, a gentle scrapping.
Scrapping away now inside his ears, trying to tear down his
thoughts. There had been a woman with a white fur tube over her
hands. Her wrists were like his now. The wrists of
someone who had tried too many times to clap his hands. He
had been applauding everyone else in life, but never himself.
The hands, like himself, had been put into prison, and he
didn't know why.
"Can't sleep in here, if the smell of this musty bedroll
doesn't make you sick, then the sound of the rats chewing
inside the walls will keep you up. You'll wake up from your
dreams to their little chomping. Sometimes I think that they
are chewing me..." The voice was coming from inside the cell,
but Gheritt couldn't see anyone.
Gheritt hadn't always been alone, he could vaguely recall from
somewhere inside his broken mind that there had been friends,
lovers, murderers.
He recalled a theory he had come up with after a bloody
schoolhouse brawl. The theory was simple. At some point in
time, everyone was a murderer. Whether or not they ever felt
remorse, they had all wanted someone dead. Hatred. Everyone
knew the feeling of hatred. Gheritt had known hatred on that
schoolyard. His beater had laughed at their bloody faces, a
laugh which now echoed through his ears, rhythmically blocking
out the other voice in the cell.
The schoolyard was usually a place where Gheritt and his
friends would play football or foursquare or something, but
today, there was an edge. Maybe everyone had eaten cereal
with milk that was about to go bad, or maybe there was too
much smoke in the air from the wheeling hubcap factory.
Football had been extremely rough. Gheritt had gone to play
foursquare after he got tackled by five boys who weren't his
friends. But today, even foursquare had an evil twist. The
top square today had become habituated to making fun of the
first square. Gheritt had decided that it was an evil day.
When his beater started to push him around, he exploded.
Hatred flowed from his eyes, his hands and feet began to
tingle. All of his coordination left him, and his face was
beaten to a bloody mess. The schoolyard disciplinarian had
been slow to notice the ensuing carnage, and she didn't really
care anyway.
Gheritt would have killed him if he could have. He would have
torn out the eyes of his beater. He would have made him pay
for his abuses. But his hands had begun to tingle. He
couldn't feel his feet and he had begun to float off the
ground.
Everyone was a murderer, but Gheritt couldn't remember his
reason for why that was so. He thought it was something about
hands, the passion for justice. His hands and feet had begun
to tingle, and he was floating farther off the floor. He
looked up from his hands, and he saw the bars of the cell,
moving left and right, opening wide and then closing shut
like the surf coming up a beach. Every time that he thought
he would be safe, the bars crested up, the opening closing,
the wave rising, crashing. The result would be the same, he
would never escape. The bars would crush him, break his back.
He could feel the roughness of the sand under his palms, for
all the motion of the waves around him, his hands had come to
rest serenely upon the ocean floor. His body tossed and
flipped, pivoting about his hands under which he could feel
the safe, coarse sand. The wave crashed one final time, he
landed upside down, his hands thrown clear from the sandy
bottom, the rush of the water filling his ears, his nose, his
mouth, the sound of crashing water cascading down from his
feet to his head- penetrating his mind to tear down thoughts.
Like the sand castle he had built to withstand the tide, his
thoughts came down around him.
Gheritt had a good life, so much time, so much time. He had
loved swimming, turning, beating. He had loved the tingle in
his hands and feet, his inability to kill his nemesis. Once
he had fallen down the stairs, and just for a moment, his
hands came to rest on the carpet of the stairs. In that
instant, his body had frozen, floating over the stairs, safe
from falling, but the moment didn't last. The ocean crashed
about him, his hands torn free from the sandy bottom, his body
flipping, falling.
But now he levitated farther up, his hands still tingling. He
began to float through the bars, he expected the instant of
safety as his hands found footing, but that moment did not
come, the bars squeezed his body. His chest tingled. As he
fell through his cage, his legs tingled. The fire in his eyes
had become a cold wind, he blinked away tears. He tumbled
through the bars, spinning and turning, he could see a man.
In his hand he saw a small white rat. A pounding, the
crashing waves in his ears became rhythmical, hard. The man
was beating the rat against the floor. Pounding, pounding.
Blood covered his hands, the man's hands tingled. He had
broken them on the floor of the cell. Disciplinarian, lover,
murderer. Gheritt looked back into the cell. He saw himself,
disciplinarian, lover, murderer. He had killed his nemesis.
The rat lay dead in his bloody hands. At last, he held the
throat of his beater.
He escaped into the waves.
The waves.
Update:
(registration required)
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?dist=¶m=archive&siteid=google&guid=%7B353936A3%2D0C20%2D4B5D%2DB9C7%2D7AE68FA1615D%7D
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. shares rebounded more than 10% Monday on takeover speculation after
losing a quarter of their value last week amid concerns about the video game maker's corporate governance.
TTWO (15.86, -0.33, -2.0%) closed up at $16.19 to follow a Saturday report in the New York Post, citing unnamed sources, that the company
has been in active talks with several buyout firms over the past week.
The report comes after the stock fell 26% over four trading days last week. On Wednesday, the game publisher filed a document with
securities regulators that contained a resignation letter from board member Barbara Kaczynski, who said she had concerns about the
company's management.
On Friday, the Los Angeles City Attorney filed a lawsuit over the inclusion of a sex scene in one of the company's games and an analyst
downgraded its shares regarding concerns first raised by Kaczynski. See full story.
A phone call by MarketWatch to the New York-based company wasn't immediately returned.
One Wall Street analyst, commenting on the New York Post report, wrote in a note to clients that the company could be a potential
buyout target, most likely for a private buyout firm.
But other analysts said the prospects of the company being acquired are slim, given the lawsuit and the possibility of an investigation by the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a concern also raised by Kaczynski.
Citigroup analyst Elizabeth Osur, who rates Take-Two neutral, wrote that the company has a huge amount of asset value that could be
unleashed in a break-up. The analyst values the company's assets at closer to $25 a share to $30 a share.
But the company's risk profile makes a public buyer unlikely, she said.
"We think a public company buyer is unlikely given the bad press surrounding many of Take Two's franchises, but a private buyer could
find the assets appealing," wrote Osur.
Osur pegs the value of Take-Two's Rockstar Games studio, which publishes its controversial "Grand Theft Auto" titles, between
$1.4 billion, or $19 a share, and $1.6 billion, or $23 a share, depending on how frequently management publishes titles based on the
Grand Theft Auto franchise.
However, Banc of America analyst Gary Cooper who downgraded Take-Two Friday, wrote that too many wild-cards will depress the company's
appeal.
"We believe key employee retention, over-dependence on one title, high cost structure, cash burn, and mounting liabilities, are some important
reasons why an acquisition of Take-Two is highly unlikely," wrote Cooper. The analyst said he does not believe entertainment conglomerates
or financial buyers are interested in Take-Two.
Cooper highlights that any potential buyer has to ensure that key employees and talent remain with the company. The analyst mentioned Rockstar
Games founders Sam and Dan Houser as among the company's most valued assets.
"A better alternative (to buying Take-Two) would be to simply hire key Rockstar personnel and start a new studio," wrote Cooper.
Stern Agree analyst Arvind Bhatia, who rates Take-Two sell, also downplayed buyout prospects, citing the potential for SEC investigations, earnings
restatements and the need to retain Rockstar personnel.
Among analysts covering Take-Two, three rate its shares a buy, 14 rate its shares hold and two rate its shares sell.
(registration required)
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?dist=¶m=archive&siteid=google&guid=%7B353936A3%2D0C20%2D4B5D%2DB9C7%2D7AE68FA1615D%7D
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. shares rebounded more than 10% Monday on takeover speculation after
losing a quarter of their value last week amid concerns about the video game maker's corporate governance.
TTWO (15.86, -0.33, -2.0%) closed up at $16.19 to follow a Saturday report in the New York Post, citing unnamed sources, that the company
has been in active talks with several buyout firms over the past week.
The report comes after the stock fell 26% over four trading days last week. On Wednesday, the game publisher filed a document with
securities regulators that contained a resignation letter from board member Barbara Kaczynski, who said she had concerns about the
company's management.
On Friday, the Los Angeles City Attorney filed a lawsuit over the inclusion of a sex scene in one of the company's games and an analyst
downgraded its shares regarding concerns first raised by Kaczynski. See full story.
A phone call by MarketWatch to the New York-based company wasn't immediately returned.
One Wall Street analyst, commenting on the New York Post report, wrote in a note to clients that the company could be a potential
buyout target, most likely for a private buyout firm.
But other analysts said the prospects of the company being acquired are slim, given the lawsuit and the possibility of an investigation by the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a concern also raised by Kaczynski.
Citigroup analyst Elizabeth Osur, who rates Take-Two neutral, wrote that the company has a huge amount of asset value that could be
unleashed in a break-up. The analyst values the company's assets at closer to $25 a share to $30 a share.
But the company's risk profile makes a public buyer unlikely, she said.
"We think a public company buyer is unlikely given the bad press surrounding many of Take Two's franchises, but a private buyer could
find the assets appealing," wrote Osur.
Osur pegs the value of Take-Two's Rockstar Games studio, which publishes its controversial "Grand Theft Auto" titles, between
$1.4 billion, or $19 a share, and $1.6 billion, or $23 a share, depending on how frequently management publishes titles based on the
Grand Theft Auto franchise.
However, Banc of America analyst Gary Cooper who downgraded Take-Two Friday, wrote that too many wild-cards will depress the company's
appeal.
"We believe key employee retention, over-dependence on one title, high cost structure, cash burn, and mounting liabilities, are some important
reasons why an acquisition of Take-Two is highly unlikely," wrote Cooper. The analyst said he does not believe entertainment conglomerates
or financial buyers are interested in Take-Two.
Cooper highlights that any potential buyer has to ensure that key employees and talent remain with the company. The analyst mentioned Rockstar
Games founders Sam and Dan Houser as among the company's most valued assets.
"A better alternative (to buying Take-Two) would be to simply hire key Rockstar personnel and start a new studio," wrote Cooper.
Stern Agree analyst Arvind Bhatia, who rates Take-Two sell, also downplayed buyout prospects, citing the potential for SEC investigations, earnings
restatements and the need to retain Rockstar personnel.
Among analysts covering Take-Two, three rate its shares a buy, 14 rate its shares hold and two rate its shares sell.
Agent Icebeezy
Welcome beautful toddler, Madison Elizabeth, to the horde!
One question, is Microsoft one of the suitors like I've been hearing?
SolidSnakex
Member
Agent Icebeezy said:
The only company taht's actually been mentioned is the one that has Bioware and Pandemic. MS is just fan speculation around here.
Mooreberg said:
Yep, and whoever gets the technology. Some publisher cynical enough would just make Vice City, San Andreas, Liberty City sequels with the same environments and new missions.
ANd if it's not a conglomerate or entertainment company, then who might it be? Newscorp?
Or Cisco?
Agent Icebeezy
Welcome beautful toddler, Madison Elizabeth, to the horde!
Dante said:
Naw, it's more than just an OA exclusive, enough to make me want to ask if it was credible or not
SolidSnakex
Member
DCharlie said:
Umm no, i'm just saying the only game company that been mentioned in articles is the one that owns Bioware and Pandemic.
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