On Friday, shares of Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO) were trading for $17.36 a share as of market closing. Then over the weekend EA made its bid for Take-Two public, releasing details of a proposed buyout at $26 a share to various news outlets including Kotaku, even going as far as to open a website dedicated to their proposal. Well surprise, surprise, this morning TTWO opened at $25.75 a share - 47% above the last closing. Shares are going fast too, with massive chunks being sold off at a time. Over the past 3 months the average trade volume for the stock has been around 1.8 million a day. As of this writing, 12.5 million shares have already changed hands. So what does this mean? Stockholders believe this buyout will happen. So do arbitrageurs - companies that buy up huge amounts of stock for the chance at making small yet high volume profits. In other words, these companies believe so strongly that the $26 a share offer will go through that they are willing to buy up huge amounts for the chance at making $.25 profit a share. I dunno folks, this looks like it could very well happen. Hold me.

Take-Two Interactive on Yahoo Finance [Yahoo]

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