Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO) is an American publisher, developer, and distributor of video and computer games and video game peripherals. The company’s headquarters are in New York City, United States, with international headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Development studio locations include San Diego, Vancouver, Toronto and Austin, Texas.
Take-Two has developed and published many notable games, including the Grand Theft Auto series, the Midnight Club racing series, controversial games Manhunt and Manhunt 2 and most recently BioShock. It owns 2K Games, formerly Visual Concepts prior to its purchase from Sega, and publishes its popular 2K Sports titles. It also acted as the publisher of Bethesda Softwork’s 2006 game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
Take-Two is the target of a hostile takeover bid from rival Electronic Arts issued in February 2008. The bid expired August 18, 2008, and, according to Take-Two, will not be renewed. However, according to CNET, the two companies entered into confidential discussions on August 25, 2008.
Company history
In February 1999, Take-Two published the game Biosys under the company Jumpstart Interactive, a point-and-click adventure which follows the protagonist Professor Alan Russell and is set inside the fictional ecological facility Biosphere Four.
In 2004 Take-Two formed two new publishing companies called 2K Games and 2K Sports in order to manage a group of newly acquired development studios as well as publishing deals with a variety of other well known studios. Take-Two acquired the rights to the ESPN 2K sports games (When EA announced the ESPN deal, they dropped “ESPN” from their games), created by Visual Concepts (football and basketball) and Kush Games (baseball and hockey), from Sega as part of the creation of 2K Sports. In the same year, Take-Two bought the rights to the Civilization game from Infogrames for $22.3 million.
In 2005, Take-Two embarked on acquisition spree and spent more than $80 million buying game developers. It bought for $32 million the development studios Visual Concepts and Kush Games, for $11.4 million Gaia Capital Group and for around $11.8 million the studio Irrational Games, which develops Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich. Then late that year in November, Take-Two acquired Firaxis for $27 million including possible performance bonuses.
At the annual meeting on March 29, 2007, Take-Two investors ousted five of six board members, including the chief executive, Paul Eibeler, who was replaced by Ben Feder.
Ryan Brant, former chief executive of Take-Two Interactive Software, pleaded guilty in February 2007 to falsifying business records. He faced up to four years in prison but received a lighter sentence in a plea agreement after agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors because he took it.
In 2005, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged in a lawsuit that Brant, with the company’s former chief financial officers, Larry Muller and James David Jr., and its head of sales, Robert Blau, inflated revenue in fiscal years 2000 and 2001.
In June the UFC filed a lawsuit against the company over the video game they created for the organization.
On May 22, 2007 Oasys Mobile signed a deal to bring several of the Sid Meier licenses to the mobile market. The original Sid Meier games are developed by Take-Two’s company Firaxis Games. Oasys will be bringing these games to the mobile market some time in 2008.
In March 2007 Take-Two filed a lawsuit against Jack Thompson, to prevent him from filing a public nuisance complaint in Florida court like he did with Bully.
Rival game company Electronic Arts revealed they had made a $25 p/share all cash transaction offer to the board of Take-Two in mid February 2008, subsequently revising it to $26 p/share after being rejected and making the offer known to the public. Rumors of a buyout had been floating around the internet several weeks prior. Stocks went up by 54% on Monday, following the Sunday announcement, closing over the $26 offer price, whilst EA’s own stock prices went down by 5%, the largest loss in over a year.
- Founded 1993
- Headquarters Flag of the United States New York, New York, USA
- Key people Ben Feder (CEO, President)
- Strauss Zelnick (Chairman)
- Industry Computer and video game
- Products video games
- Revenue 539.8 million USD (Q1 2008)
- Employees 2,002 (2007)
- Website www.take2games.com
Take-Two Interactive – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia