14 DAY TRIAL // A Securities and Exchange Commission filling has shown that investor Carl Icahn has bought up shares of the publisher Take Two, pushing his stake in the company to just over 11%. He now owns no less than 9 million shares, which are estimated to be worth a little over 70 million dollars.
The SEC document also shows that the investor believes the shares themselves are “undervalued” and that he is prepared to talk to the management of the company in order to see how the shares could improve their value on the market.
Icahn initially bought shares in Take Two way back in 2006, going up to 1 percent before selling some stock and again increasing his share in the last few weeks, just as the publisher was signaling that it will not manage to make a profit during the year. The latest financial information coming from Take Two shows that its revenue went down by more than a third to reach 968.5 million dollars, while losses expanded to reach 137.9 million when GAAP rules are used.
Analysts are saying that the increase in shares for Icahn might be the first move in a bid to influence the leadership of Take Two towards adopting a new strategy focused on increasing the value of the company's stock. Icahn has made similar moves towards Yahoo and Lionsgate Entertainment, resulting in much publicized clashes.
When Strauss Zelnick took over as chairman of the board at Take Two, the market value of a share was about 20 dollars. One year later, Electronic Arts, which was at that point in much better financial shape than it is now, offered 26.74 dollars per share in its unsuccessful bid for a take over. Take Two shares are now hovering around the 8 dollar mark. 2010 is set to be another bleak year for Take Two as no GTA title is set to be released.