Germans and hostile take-overs hmmm...

In other news, the German government approves takeover of Poland and France.

Germany - Okay with hostile takeovers since 1938

Ok, I'm a bit confused here. Does this mean that EA would need permission from each government in every region the acquisition would be valid in? I thought since both are US companies, only the US FTC and DoJ would be involved.

How does all this concern Germany? And isn't GTA4 banned there? :P

in other news germany thought russia was a good take over.

Take Two is acquiring Germany! Awesome!

(I'll read it how I wanna read it)

@Komrade_Kayce:
Your star is well deserved for comments like this. A+

Anyone think they're going to try to shove it through before Tuesday?

Wow, I can see the maturity of kotakus comment section has gone horrifically downhill since I last checked in a few hours ago.

Dear Germany,

I appologise for the rest of the world still giving you shit over your past, despite many of the countries that these people live in having done similar things in their past.

Yours Sincerely
Me.

Hey Americans? Finished wiping vietnamese baby blood off of your bayonettes? And what about you Brits? Are your broadswords hungering for more muslim blood yet? And who could forget the Dutch, had any nice genocides lately?

On topic: This sucks. But EA knows they only have 3 days to complete this takeover before their chances go out the window.

@TheSmiterer:

Wow buddy. Lighten up. In case you havent noticted, we (commenters) crack jokes about war hungry America, polite, poor and drunk Canada, and dirty Mexicans all the time.

France just took a huge comedy hit on Uwe Boll's little topic.

Shall we not forget the infamous line 'Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition?'. And hey, Im the first one to throw out a Crusades joke if the need calls for one.

World History humor means we're laughing with you. Not at you.

What the shit does Germany approving this have to do with anything? Last time I checked both Take Two and Electronic Arts were American companies!

Can anyone shed some light as to why this would be beneficial for EA and bad for TTwo?

@TheSmiterer:

Oh here, a quick reference guide to world history/social norm comedy as provided by me:

America: Angry, violent, war machine
Russia: Dirt poor ex communist vodka drinkers, with an army
Canada: Dirt poor quasi communist beer drinkers, with no army
Ireland: Drunk
Scotland: Kilt wearing drunks
Italy: Sex crazy hairy backed pope supportin football hooligans. Oh, also insert joke about being unable to take a side too.
Switzerland: Cheese lovin pacifists who will hold onto the wallets of the guys who decide to fight
Britain: Queen loving bad teeth having crusade causing snobs
China: Scary
Poland: Sausage and picke loving with the fighting skill of a choir boy
France: Cheese eatin wine drinkin surrender monkeys
Australia: Criminal harbouring bush people where everyone is named Mick

and on and on and on

@PissedPS3Fan, jspeed04: A post-merger company that a jurisdiction finds anticompetitive (or some other things, if you're looking at European law) may be barred from doing business in the country. You are correct that, as American companies, the German government could not stop the merger. It could, however, prevent the post-merger company from doing business in their country.

@Fnor: hanks for the explanation. I too was a little confused what business it was of Germany if two American companies merged.

@PissedPS3Fan, @jspeed04, @Fnor:

German and EU law are not my strong suits, but my understanding says that Fnor is correct. Even if Germany couldn't block the merger, EU do need to get the ok because of fairly strong anti-competitive laws. Remember Microsoft getting hit by huge EU fines? That was for anti-competitive practices, even though Microsoft is incorporated in Washington State.

My real question is whether EA can get EU approval and not have to worry about every single European country or if they have to go through each national regulatory body. I really have no clue.

@Seanchaen: They could, which is why it's a bit odd to hear about German regulatory agencies. This literally is what the EU is for.

Interestingly, Germany is probably stricter with regard to antitrust because of the backlash against government-granted monopolies in the early 20th century. I've got a killer headache and can't remember the actual term, though.

In Rockstar's words (GTA:SA PS2 version 1.0, the GH version has this removed):

@Komrade_Kayce: Hey.

Not all of us are called Mick. :(

Some are called Micko. Or Micky. Or Micka.

We are very diverse.

This is a funny video I found about this take over!

+ Watch video

@TakeOver:

This video fails. That Richard Krause guy tagged his video with everything from gay to sex and porn, which it contains none of.

And... its just not funny. At all. You made me sad. :(

To all the "funny" poster around here: During the last 60 years your own country was pretty big in hostile takeovers as well.

I don't think you'll find a people more oppposed to war and violence on this planet than the germans these days.

@Komrade_Kayce: Right, so its fine to joke about the deaths of ~60 million people now? Fine by me:

lulz k whut 9/11!!!111z0rz!

To be honest I'm not too excited about this,while EA does publish good titles,they dont usually publish THE title,the kind of title that gets a 10 on ign.I think rockstar has achieved what it has because it took it's time and had a ,whateva i do what i want! approach.