14 DAY TRIAL // A second deadline has passed as Electronic Arts continues to try and execute a hostile takeover of Take Two. The results of the offer have not yet been made available but there's every reason to believe that Electronic Arts has again failed to acquire the shares it needs to control the company.
Meg Maise, a spokesperson for Take-Two, stated that, "There is nothing going on right now," when Yahoo contacted her for information.
The main question is what Electronic Arts plans on doing now. Until an official announcement from the giant videogames publisher comes, we can only speculate.
Originally, Take Two said that it would not talk to EA until after GTA IV was released. In fact Strauss Zelnick has never said that he refused to talk to EA, he just pointed out that the time frame in which he was willing to discuss about Take Two's future was different from the time frame in which EA originally made its offer. It might be that now, after a successful game launch, flush with cash and with shareholders seeing the value of their stock increasing, Strauss Zelnick, the chairman of the board at Take Two, is prepared to talk.
His newfound strength means that John Riccitiello, the boss at Electronic Arts, needs to come up with a much better offer, mainly in financial terms, to convince Take Two that it should become part of EA. There's also talk that Zelnick wants an offer which would put him in an important management position after the takeover.
Further adding to the possibility of a third, successful, offer from EA is the fact that, recently, the company secured a $1 billion line of financing to be used in the eventuality that Take Two agreed to a takeover. So it might be that, while we were busy playing GTA IV, Electronic Arts and Take Two have reached some sort of agreement regarding a takeover. We'll just have to wait for official news and see what happens.