As of press time today, Take-Two is worth more per share than Electronic Arts is offering to pay for it — at times approaching a whole dollar per share higher than EA's acquisition bid. Though Take-Two's been trading consistently at or above $26 since April 23rd, it's the highest the share price has been since that week in February when the buyout was initially announced.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter saw that similar February spike as a vote of confidence from the shareholders that the acquisition was likely to go through. This time, though, with the state of the buyout apparently in limbo until May 16th, the climb in stock price looks likely due to a voluminous wave of super-hyperbolic positivity from reviewers regarding the imminent GTA IV.

Stressing that their offer is "full and fair," EA senior VP of corporate development Owen Mahoney recently said that any GTA IV-related spikes in Take-Two's share price would be "a short term event," since he agrees with the analyst opinion that investors have already considered the value of GTA IV.

Neither EA nor Take-Two have yet responded to requests for comment on what, if anything, the elevated share price might signal for the ongoing bid.

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