EA On Take-Two Buyout Attempt: "A Waste Of Ink"

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One of this year's earliest and most compelling business sagas in the industry revolved around EA's pursuit of Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive. However, EA has officially walked away from the ongoing negotiation, saying they'd rather focus on what they currently have in the hopper.

That's all well and good, but don't think EA's attempt at Take-Two was all about money (er, yeah it was). According to what EA boss John Riccitiello told the Wall Street Journal, he wanted "to help that company get through what has been an uneven profit experience." Essentially, EA just wanted to help Take-Two, although it seems the latter wasn't interested in the assistance, and believes they can soldier forth on their own. Besides, things were taking forever. Riccitiello adds that "time was of the essence, because we wanted to impact holiday 2008 sales of Grand Theft Auto IV." At this point, something like Dead Space ought to help in that regard, but in the end, Riccitiello just calls the whole EA/Take-Two ordeal a "waste of ink." Well, we could call it a waste of valuable typing time, too, considering the sheer amount of news and updates prompted by what would've been a colossal business move. Even so, it was entertaining for a while, wasn't it?

The current rumor is that EA is quietly pursuing Gears of War developer, Epic Games, although that may not fit in with the current "holiday focus" strategy. We'll let you know if anything official occurs on that front, though.

10/15/2008 Ben Dutka

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