In the end called-off the takeover talks because it wanted the deal completed in time to impact holiday 2008 sales of GTA 4.
The Wall Street Journal reports that EA CEO John Riccitiello remains fairly unconcerned that the publisher's bid to acquire Take-Two Interactive came to an end without the desired result after EA walked away from talks.
Riccitiello is reported to have labelled the takeover talks as "a waste of ink" and explained the publisher's reasons for removing its unsolicited bid from the table.
Advertisement"... time was of the essence, because we wanted to impact holiday 2008 sales of Grand Theft Auto IV," said Riccitiello. He went on to suggest that the proposed takeover was doing Take-Two a favour and would have helped the company "get through what has been an uneven profit experience".
Riccitiello concluded: "Take-Two told us to wait and that they wanted more money. We waited. We went through a variety of steps. The gap [in price] remained."
NinetiesKid wrote at 15:30 on 15 October 2008
I think there's a word missing in the first sentence James, "In the end EA called-off the takeover talks because it wanted the deal completed in time to impact holiday 2008 sales of GTA 4."
master chief wrote at 23:22 on 15 October 2008
Wow What a way to cover your ass EA you just wanted Take Twos IPs so you could make money off of them. Is it that hard to admit.