Another extraordinary, technology-driven takeover was proposed Sunday, this time with an iconic Silicon Valley company as the aggressor and with the most controversial video game of all time as the ultimate prize.
Electronic Arts of Redwood City, for decades the dominant independent game developer in the world, revealed a $2 billion bid to buy New York-based Take-Two Interactive Software, publisher of the infamous and wildly popular "Grand Theft Auto" game series.
Take-Two immediately rejected the offer, just as it rejected previous approaches from EA that were made privately but detailed Sunday when EA went public with its bid of $26 a share. EA's next step may become clear during a conference call scheduled for 5 a.m. today.
EA Chief Executive John Riccitiello, reached by the Mercury News late Sunday at a dinner in New York with key EA investors, said Take-Two's resistance surprised him and noted that EA's bid represented more than a 60 percent premium over Take-Two's stock price on Feb. 19, when EA first made the $26 per share offer.
"The Wall Street Journal sold to (News Corp.'s Rupert) Murdoch for a 60 percent premium, and Microsoft's got a 60 percent premium out for Yahoo," Riccitiello said. "Those are big premiums, and they happen only in the rarest of circumstances."
But Riccitiello said crucial timing was involved in trying to make a deal happen quickly. He said a deal made now could close by summer, enabling EA to effectively marshal all of its distribution and marketing resources on behalf of the next "Grand Theft Auto" game in time for the 2008 holiday season.
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