German Govnt Approves Possible Take-Two Aquisition

In a late afternoon filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission today, Electronic Arts reports that the German Federal Cartel Office has OKed the planned acquisition of Take-Two by EA.

“In addition to our filing under the HSR Act with the DOJ and FTC, on March 25, 2008, Purchaser made a pre-merger filing with the German competition authorities. On April 24, 2008, Purchaser was notified by the German Federal Cartel Office that the proposed transaction had been cleared.”

EA Extends Take-Two Tender Offer

Following last night's Take-Two shareholder meeting, which Leigh was kind enough to cover, Electronic Arts has announced that they are extending the deadline on their tender offer to May 16th, 2008. The offer was originally extended from its original April 11th deadline to today in response to Take-Two's rescheduling of the annual shareholder meeting.

Also, as a result of Take-Two issuing additional stock following the approval of the company's incentive stock plan, the price per share EA is offering has dropped to $25.74 from $26.

EA reveals that as of 5PM yesterday, 6,423,787 shares of Take-Two common stock had been tendered in and not withdrawn from the offer.

For more on how all this works, be sure to check out Leigh's feature on the takeover.

EA Talks About Their "Tender" Offer and a Line in the Sand

I had a chance to speak with Owen Mahoney, Electronic Arts senior vice president of corporate development, a short time ago about their decision to take their campaign to buy-out Take-Two to the next level.

"The timing of (the offer) was really driving off of what we think is best for the company," Mahoney said. "The offer has been open for two weeks now, the longer it is out there the less valuable it is."

On Tuesday Take-Two reiterated their position during their earnings report conference call that they would not be selling to Electronic Arts.

"We wanted to learn what they had to say and once we learned that we decieded the right thing to do was to bring it right to shareholders," Mahoney said.

Competition among game companies is as fierce here as it is anywhere in the world...except for the Booth Babes, they're not just supportive, they're fans. This giggling trio took turns posing with each, two at a time, as the odd woman out snapped pics.