A merger of this side would take a while to complete if given the go ahead, so by the time the lawyers have made enough money GTA IV would be on the shelves. But surely this merger must be illegal against competition laws? As it only leaves Activision as a main rival?

twitnip

@baccardi84:
Whatever.. I've looked at your posting history and you are obviously an EA fanboy for whatever reason.
If you want to defend them fine but you'll have to do better than trying to discredit my argument with such a weak blanket statement.

Bastard11

"up to 6 months for non-executives" - you'll get two paychecks, a $5 off coupon at the cafeteria, and a guaranteed interview to be one of the fired executives' personal mounts.

chantastic

Jack Thompson love EA because they censor themselves. GTA4 with an EA logo will suck manatee scrotum.

ezcheezbandit

@Bastard11: if it's popular opinion, it must be right! you're just spewing standard anti-corporation stuff. you're so out of it. get over yourself

baccardi84

@baccardi84:
Care to elaborate on what points aren't valid? What exactly I'm uninformed on?
And which of my opinions are not popular opinion?

And you are wrong.. EA is not a collection of people at all, it is a corporation. A corporation functions like it's own sentient being in many respects.. the people you refer to are shareholders and "assets."

You are partially right about making money and games but I don't think you have the whole picture.
The assets are the people trying to make games.. but if you knew anything about working for EA you'd know it is mostly a fruitless and uninspiring place to do so.. the "assets" also get treated like shit.

The shareholders are the ones that are about making money. They don't actually give a shit about making games.. if EA could turn bigger profits suddenly selling ice-cream they'd be all for it. Acquisitions are less about improving the companies product and more about giving off the impression that such an acquisition has the potential to improve profit. Whatever makes the shares climb.. not the gamers happy.

There are a few problems with huge corporations like EA. For one, they cannot, by law, make decisions that will intentionally deflate their shareholders investments. This is what makes it so hard for corporations to "do good." Doing good, such as going green, is usually a costly thing to do, increasing overhead and lowering profitability.
It is a balancing act that only gets tougher the bigger you are. EA is huge, so they have a lot more overhead and profit to balance.. this is why decisions about when a game has to be ready by are not made by the developers but rather with input from marketing, accountants..etc..

I never alluded to any conspiracies.. these are just the unfortunate facts. All the good EA has done for this industry was over a decade ago. Are they really worse than Activision, THQ, and Ubisoft? In a word, Yes. Are other publishers all innocent little angels? No.. but then again.. how much of their business has been in response to the trends set by EA and Microsoft?

For the record.. yes, I believe those two companies have been the biggest destructive forces in the industry in terms of changing the game for developers and smaller publishers.

Now you want to talk conspiracies? EA/MS is only a matter of time.

Bastard11

@Gannoc: This isn't the poison pill. This would cost EA less then ten million and is not a serious deterrent. They DO have a poison pill, though--if EA buys them, an absurd number of shares will vest with management, significantly diluting the value of the company and putting control of a majority of shares in the hands of current management.

@Swarm19: Making a console wouldn't really make sense. The hardware is usually a loss-leader for the software, so if you make software already there's no real incentive to take a step backward and start losing money on hardware. The only way an EA console would make sense is if they could sell the same number of copies of software while losing less on the hardware than they lose having to develop for multiple consoles. And unless the Big 3 suddenly give up on videogames, I don't see it happening.

erlik

Good to see a great company like Take Two is going to take care of it's own.

TK423

Wow...I wouldn't mind 6 months! Here's to hoping I get laid off! LOL!!!

gibfather

@Bastard11: you're so ridiculous man. half your points aren't even valid, half you clearly don't have enough info on to make them, and the other half are just your opinions but you treat them like they're facts (yes that's three halves). All EA is, is a collection of people trying to make games and money, like every other game company. there are no conspiracies here. you overlook any good that the company has done, and when you do your little comparisons, you also have to realize who the competition are. Are activision, thq, ubisoft, or the rest any better? be truly honest now

baccardi84

where is EA home base? i am willing to throw a pie at anyone who walks in or out. being a cake man; pie is a fitting insult for those bastards!

Crazy_Buffet_Happens

EA is driving me further and further away from gaming and it makes me sad. They rush everything, don't bother to go back and patch the broken games. And yeah, they just buy the competition instead of getting their shit together.

I really do think this could be the second coming of the video-game crash. As hardcore gamers get driven away by companies' lure to the mass market appeal of more casual offerings and quick buck bug filled ports there will be a reverse effect. Hardcore games and gamers are the backbone of this industry.. without the hype machine, without the fan sites, websites, magazines, FAQs, guides, and word of mouth that comes from having a hardcore gamer scene video games will just fade into the background of entertainment.

EA is consuming itself and taking it's supporters for granted. They make so many aggressive moves that hurt gamers that it is only a matter of time before the spite for them becomes the mainstream.

I know I won't buy another EA game unless I see some MAJOR changes. They have screwed me over as an invested fan of video games too many times for me to be stupid enough to continue to support them.

Here is a quick reminder of just a few things EA has done to us.

-Canned "Thrill Kill" citing a policy against strong violence as their primary reason. Cashing in on WW2 shooter Medal of Honor shortly afterwards.
-Ripped of their employees for exorbitant amounts of overtime and reduced employees standards of living with exceedingly long mandatory min hours.
-Intentionally leave out new features from sports titles to give themselves something to fall back on for next year.
-Executive level game designs being handed down to the "Lead Game Designer," while killing original ideas he/she may have had.
-Origin, Westwood Studios, and Bullfrog buyout then murder.
-Mass firings or firing of very talented individuals for no good reason.
-Lack of support for titles after release. Often very buggy games that need patching to be worth the money paid for them. e.g. Skate, NFS Most Wanted, Command and Conquer... this can also be applied to the shutting down of online game servers.
-Lack of quality online features.. Fight Night Round 3 and Skate. are so frustrating to play online that I can't even be bothered.
-Ruin acquired franchises.
-Exclusive licenses that, no matter how they spin it, don't benefit gamers in the slightest.
-Editing Wikipedia=propaganda.
-Making people pay for cheat codes.
-Not using their immense power/money for the good of the gamer. e.g. They are more than willing to throw around money for exclusive rights and buyouts but where is their power when it comes to helping Harmonix secure music acts for Rock Band?
-Same story with R&D and development cycles.. why can't one of the biggest, richest and most powerful companies in the industry make games that work, why can't they understand the PS3?
-And possibly worst of all... EA Trax!
The list goes on and on and on...

Bastard11

@Sherlock_the_Barbarian:

I am aware of monopolies and trends. With that being said, EA's acquisition of Take Two will not likely put EA above Activision, as they own WoW and Guitar Hero. While I do realize that once Take 2 has been absorbed, the NFL monopoly will continue, the baseball 3rd party freeze-out will be over, 2k Sports will probably be disolved, and there you go, there are less crappy games out there.

Personally, I'd like to see Activision swallow EA.

Losbullitt

@dead_red_eyes:

It's lame but its how all companies roll. Ye best get used to it.

Neo-Senku

@huginn - No I will not give you a hug!: I'm not sure it's possible for a company to "white knight itself".

A white knight is by definition an outside entity. It'd be like marrying yourself.

What boosted their stock price was EA's takeover bid. If they successfully thwart it, the price will drop again. There's a reason this news was released on a Friday.

badasscat

This story is vaguely intersting, but i really just like the accompanying graphic. Airborne!

danjlove

Take two is REALLY white knighting it self. Boosting there Stock price and now this. They REALLY don't want to be bought out by EA at all

huginn - No I will not give you a hug!

@Losbullitt:

There is a reason that monopolies and the trend toward rampant corporate mergers is troublesome, not just in video games but business in general. It's not simply about EA, but about what happens when very few companies control the majority of any industry. For example, right now news outlets are increasingly controlled by fewer corporate entities, and arguments can be made that impartiality and quality are suffering.

Besides, EA has already crushed earlier acquisitions under its corporate fist. Why does anybody believe that they wouldn't ruin other companies that they buy?

Sherlock_the_Barbarian

You guys act like EA is the devil. That's stupid. You should be more worried about your uncle Steve becoming the antichrist than EA's return to the top of the publisher's list. Besides, if you don't play Madden or BF2142, who cares?

Losbullitt

@Mikazukinoyaiba:

NVM, I understand now. You were regarding the "poison pill" policy to make it undesirable to take control of Take Two.

Mikazukinoyaiba

@tzaketh:

40 years?

You honestly think they could afford to give each and every non-executive employee 100x their salary for the next forty years and a 100 million dollar bonus?

Ignoring the fact that 40 yrs is an awfully long time to have gone without seeking another job (usually severance pay is to cover for the time when a person is in-between jobs), that is an insane amount of money. An amount they would not have made if they even stayed with the company.

Your policy is simply bad business and ludicrous.

Mikazukinoyaiba

@Mikazukinoyaiba:

No, I'm not. The idea is a basic "If we can't have it, neither can you".

[en.wikipedia.org]

tzaketh

In my last company, we were offered a good severance package in the case of a rival company buying us out. That was in a time when a company was looking to buy us, and our CEO was like there is no way in hell we will sell. Low and behold, in 6 months, our company was sold. I think this transaction is inevitable now.

optimusprime

The business world for ya.

SpartanQ77

EA: Focus on making the games you make better instead of eating companies that make your games look shit.

ErskinPig

Until recently Take-Two really had no way to counter a possible hostile takeover - EA's $26 per share is an enormous amount of cash T2's shareholders really couldn't match. So, yeah, the poison pills are probably the way to go.

On a side note, if Larry Probst was still the CEO of EA, I'd have no doubt in my mind about EA's motivation: buy Take-Two to kill their sports division.

However, with John Riccitiello behind the wheel, I'm not so sure - he seems like a smart enough businessman to realize EA needs a change in direction. I actually liked his "mea culpa" speech at DICE about deaths of Westwood and Bullfrog.

Vanderer

in all the years I've worked I've met maybe a handful of upper management that truly deserved the money they got. The rest were simply adept at bullshitting their way through their responsibilities.

Anyhow, as generous as Take 2 is being, the difference in severance packages between management and the rest is obscene.

Cell9song

The execs are just covering their butts for when the buyout happens. Of all the people EA could get rid of at Take-Two, it's the executives who are among the most expendable. EA has their own executives.

The Take-Two execs know this, so they're making sure that if (when?) they get fired, they get their cash-money. As for the 6 months pay for the regular employees...that's not expensive for EA at all as they'd likely keep most of them around anyways.

The bourgeoisie lording over the proletariat.

Quilt

Why in the flying f*** would you let EA to storm inside your office in the first place?! Take 2 should barricade every damn office they have. Employees working on GTA should hide in some fortified bunker deep underground. Let's see if those corporate sharks can get hold of them now.

garytek

@tzaketh:
You're kidding right? That is way too much.

Mikazukinoyaiba

This is nothing more than a poison pill and a pretty weak one at that.

hoos30

Poison pills rock.

Most companies have em.

Losbullitt

This isn't a severance package for the purpose of being nice.

In business terms, this is called a "Poison Pill"

[en.wikipedia.org]

Gannoc

Oh, wow, I totally read "executives" as "non-executives." I retract my previous statement. Not cool, Take-Two, not cool.

peAr_nectAr

Fuck corporate officers and executives.

This severance package is better than many, but it still pales in comparison to keeping one's job.

crapsh00t

Yeah, that's ridiculous, you know it's completely for the suits. It's not EA's gonna come in and fire all the developers, that's what they're interested in. Really in the end it would probably only be some top level execs that really get the boot.

Dancin_Fool

@meandering_drivel:

Hahaha I see what you did there!

plushrevolver

@meandering_drivel:

What is that?

y x 1.5(b) = z/18 = X

X = monthly pay
Y = yearly pay
z = adjusted pay
b = bonus
xxx = The next DOA Beach Volleyball Game

Losbullitt

Fucking suits, they don't make the game ... they just call shots and get some comfy batshit-insane severance package. That's fucked. You ask me, the non-execs are getting royally screwed in comparison to the execs. Lame.

dead_red_eyes

@stryker1800: 18 X 1.5 = 27 months... 3 months over 2 years =)... at least for executives

meandering_drivel

@Grumps:

6 months salary is better than nothing.

But I'm sure if you held the reigns of a company, it wouldn't flounder as Take Two has in the last couple of years. You'd be selling trillions of copies of games, even games to people who have no consoles to play them on, just so that they can own a piece of your pie.

Losbullitt

@Sub: One console future? So the company that owns that console can have a total monopoly? No thanks. I like the competition. It stops companies from making their prices even more astronomical than they already are.

Anyway, that severance package seems pretty nice of T2. Though I'm still hoping they resist EA until the end of the world.

peAr_nectAr

@Sub: It's called a PC.
@Tzero7: Well, if the can manage to loose BILLIONS and perhaps never have a stake in the japanese market (how many jp developers do they control?), they could pull it off. But it may also be ET-Atari version 2.0

MasterOfPastures

@meandering_drivel: i think you might want to read the post again it does not say two years worth of pay, it says 18 months youre about six months short there bud.

stryker1800

so executives get like $500,00+, others get 10,000

Grumps

@Swarm: Activision would have something to say about that console.

In any case, I personally want a one console future.

Sub

@Swarm19: maybe thats been their plan all along. They start out as just a game company than they become a huge game company so then they buy all the competion all the while planning their own console. Than when they launch it they will own all the third-party developers.

Tzero7

2 years worth of pay? that's uber cool.

meandering_drivel

If it does happen, I hope its after GTA so EA doesnt get a stake in it.

You know sooner or later EA is going to release a console and they will end up having exclusive rights to almost every popular game on the market. they would clean house.

Swarm19

Good move by Take-two. Though their severance package should have been 100x your salary for forty years+ a 100 million dollar bonus.

Let's see EA turn a profit from that.

tzaketh

its gonna happen. GTA 4 will have the EA logo on it, you just watch

RPGCrazied

6 months is better than 0 months I guess.

wicko