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According to the New York Post online, the $2 billion offer made by EA that was roundly rejected by Take-Two Interactive won’t be the last. EA is keenly interested in acquiring the publisher of the GTA series and would like to do so in a friendly manner. However, Stern Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia feels that a hostile deal will be approved by shareholders “provided the offer is 50 percent above its pre-offer closing price of $17.36.” That is a ton of money, but not out of line. EA’s latest bid for Take-Two breaks down to $26.00 per share just four cents shy of the additional 50% on the pre-offer price. What would a hostile takeover mean for gamers? We’ll have to wait and see, but the EA mentality is to purchase up any and all competition. By picking up Take-Two many of our favorite titles will be EA franchises. It may be enough momentum for the gaming juggernaut to run roughshod through the industry. By eliminating competition through acquisition one would think EA runs the risk of violating anti-trust laws, but that’s not the case. The industry still has a number of competitive publishers to keep the legislators at bay, but the sheer size of EA allows it to shift its weight around in order to structure policies and industry standards that give it an unfair competitive advantage. Consumers beware!
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