Think EA were the only big publishers interested in snapping up Take-Two? Nunh-unh. Activision thought about it too. They mulled it over, clicked their tongues, asked a few friends what they thought, then decided against it. Why? Because they eventually decided Take-Two just weren't worth buying. Activision boss Bobby Kotick:

I think we've had - as we've said for a very long time, now - well-stated criteria for what we're interested in in an acquisition.

We've said that we need a history of profitability, good management, the proprietary technology for a franchise, history of multimillion unit sellers. They would have to be non-dilutive and operating margin accretive.

And, for us, Take-Two didn't fulfill those requirements. Maybe it does over the long-term for EA, but it doesn't for us.

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