14 DAY TRIAL // In the continued saga of the hostile offer from Electronic Arts for Take Two, most of us missed the news regarding another possible takeover in the videogaming world. Publisher SCi Enterntainment, who owns a controlling stake in Eidos, was the target of a takeover offer this week.
Initial rumors said that NBC was very interested in acquiring the company and made a 100 million dollars offer to the board, in conditions of privacy. Then speculation arose regarding interest from media giant Warner Bros.
But the SCi board decided that the submitted offer did not provide enough financial security for the form and that the interest of the stake holders would be better served if the offer was refused.
The official statement read, "The pursuit of an uncertain takeover proposal with consequent delay and risks to the company's proposed issuance of new equity to fund the execution of its revised strategic plan would not be in the best interests of the company or its shareholders. Accordingly the company is not pursuing discussions in relation to this proposal and the proposed equity fundraising remains the company's priority at this time".
Eidos is the main creative force within Sci. Its new Canada based studio, Eidos Montreal has confirmed that it is currently working on a Deus Ex game, the third in the series, while there are also rumors that the same studio is hiring staff needed for the development of another Thief game. So there's good reason to speculate that the purchase offer for SCi could be mainly a vehicle for the acquisition of Eidos.
After the rejection of this initial offer, which was made directly to the SCi board, it is possible that the potential buyer could go public, thereby revealing its identity and initiating a hostile takeover of the company. As further news breaks, we'll bring it to you.