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EA Abandons Efforts To Take Over Take-Two
Erik J writes "Electronic Arts has abandoned plans to absorb Grand Theft Auto IV publisher Take-Two Interactive, the company announced earlier today. Following over half a year of hostile buyout offers by EA, the pair went into talks under a confidentiality agreement in late August. From the official announcement: 'EA continues to have a high regard for Take-Two's creative teams and products, [but] after careful consideration, including a management presentation and review of other due diligence materials provided by Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., EA has decided not to make a proposal to acquire Take-Two and has terminated discussions with Take-Two.' The announcement caused Take-Two's stock to drop by 30%, and analysts expect a bidding war to ensue for employment of the GTA creators."
The Flying Spaghetti Monster be praised! Hallelujah and Allahu Akbar!
You just got troll'd!
Why do I get the feeling that it's always the same pathetic loser madly hammering the refresh button just so he can make a post like this every single time? Surely his MAC ID can be banned or something...
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
We need more publishers, not less. Well, we need less EA but that's too much to hope for.
Yes, surely that can't be easily spoofed. :)
Good Riddance I say.
http://www.zombieapocalypse.tv/
Good move, you know EA would have populated the market with yearey (or twice yearley) low quality GTA's and Bioshock's with Spore DRM (SecuROM).
They would figure most would just buy them anyways = more profit for them.
One thing that is really good for the industry out of all this, is this prevents EA Sports from monopolizing the sports genre.
EA recently spoke about trying to win back our hearts and shed this negative image people have about EA. However I must say that they are not doing it right. Yes they are introducing new interesting IP's such as Spore, Mirror's Edge and Dead Space. However they wont win any heats with hostile takeovers and horrible DRM!
Make SELinux enforcing again!
Take Two hasn't done anything really worthy of praise in recent memory. People may think some of the products are groundbreaking or artistic, but its really just been squeals pop culture junk. They probably would have fit in perfectly at EA.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
When you're all anonymous, there are only two people on the Internet: You and Me.
Although sometimes John comes on but that's infrequent.
EA has a bad habit of screwing everything they put their hands on. look at spore and how did it end up.
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You could at least ban the text of the first post trolls. They're not usually unique text.
Could also have a probation period for each story where any posts that happen say within the first 10 minutes of a story being posted, very blatantly obvious trolls will be deleted by an administrator or something like that. Maybe a post made in the first 2 minutes if it gets modded troll or off topic a certain number of times, it will be automatically deleted. Is anyone really going to be upset if the running trolls are deleted? I mean besides the trolls themselves?
I think he was expressing an emotion that often is characterized by people saying "Thank the lord" but was, uh, oddly religious? I don't think anyone is actually honestly pastafarian, and I don't care if that offends anyone.
I think he was hoping to provoke angry outbursts from the same socially conservative christians who got upset about walmart saying "happy holidays" maybe. A noble goal, but of course few of them browse on slashdot, and couldn't figure out how to respond (assuming they can read), so it's not very effective.
It's tricky ground to walk, on a site like this. Obviously the first post was a blatant troll, but with so many stories decrying the evils of censorship, how can we actually censor trolls? I had a thought that maybe moderators could send posts below -1 at double the cost of mod points (to try and curb abuse). Something that gets to -10 would require a total of 20 negative mods, and would most probably be a troll; this is hardly a perfect idea, though.
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
i'll wait for the abridged version, collector's exclusive edition, uncut.
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Yeah, no one likes censoring, but for months someone would write "Frosty piss" or some variant as the first post. Say you can't post that phrase in the first 10 minutes.
Matter of fact, why let ACs post immediately after a story is posted anyway? They already have a tiering system to encourage subscribers.
And just right now, I looked at the new story about another Mars mission, and lo and behold: the first post is yet another troll posting as AC. I'd probably go so far as to say no more AC posting. I already say to trolls that if they don't want to own up to something they've posted then the obviously think it's not worth reading... Problem is, it's not just trolls who post anonymous, and I'd rather not see the many punished for the actions of the few.
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
So how about no ACs within X minutes of a story going live? That makes sense to me. It seems this particularly odious and obnoxious variety of AC is mostly just obsessed with getting the first post, so any reasonable delay before allowing AC posts would head this annoyance off at the pass, so to speak.
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
We shall first post on the beaches,
We shall first post on the landing grounds,
We shall first post in the fields and in the streets,
We shall first post in the hills;
etc.
What I was actually trying to express was such a feeling of thankfulness over the failure of EA at ruining Take-Two that all known deities should be thanked on the very off chance any of them exists.
You just got troll'd!
Or you could just set your threshold to +1, I rarely see a blatant troll post with that set. Maybe I'm just not looking at the stories quick enough? That Mars story only had 10 comments when I looked at it, and I didn't see any trolls.
you should take some time to develop the balls needed to voice your opinion with your own identity.
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The market responded by punishing the stock price of both companies. There could be little more clear evidence that the market is not efficient. How stupid does one need to be to think that EA + Take Two would be better than the two independently? Or, perhaps, how broken must our "free" market be for that combination to make sense?
EA pumps out extremely polished, but hopelessly formulaic titles. They treat their employees like interchangeable cogs. And they count every bean as if it were their last. It's not everyone's style, but it works for the products they create.
Take Two creates lavish works that are expressions of a borderline mental artistic genius. They treat their employees like, well, Rock Stars. They blow through cash like a 1999 dot-com. They are constantly bouncing from rags to riches and back again, but when they hit they move the industry.
The idiot investment analyst looks at that and thinks, "Imagine Take Two's brilliant artistry with EA's money management and product-focus." But, that is why you are called an "idiot" investment analyst, idiot. These are not compatible business models. EA is no more capable of nurturing artistry than Take Two is of being efficient. They are specialized, and they excel because they are specialized. Their flaws are facets of the strengths that make them great.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
Just maybe this story has something to do with the complete fallout of the credit market... just maybe
JUST MAYBE?
The last sentence of the summary - and the article it links to - are incorrect. Sam and Dan Houser did not create GTA, Dave Jones did. DMA Design was not affiliated with Rockstar in any way when that game was created.
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm a fan of the 2K sports games.
Before Madden's exclusive contract with the NFL, the NFL2K series was definitely giving it a run for its money and was even better in many years IMO.
The NBA2K franchise has been superior to Live for a few years now.
With exception to their recent things on Madden, EA still doesn't have a great reputation for putting care into their main sports titles. I would certainly like an alternative even though the NFL is still locked down. :-(
EA decides to buy their competitor, Take Two. Take Two opens its books for EA. After completely digesting the business model, plans, culture, and product line up EA changes its mind and walks away. Take Two then has to continue competing with EA as if it never happened; all the while knowing that EA has a leg up now that it has seen "the books" and knows the next few moves in advance.
EA needs a shower after that groping.
You couldn't ban a user based on a MAC as slashdot never sees that. MAC is layer 2, Internet is layer 3. You only need a MAC to talk to machines in the local network. You could ban based on IP, but then they proxy...
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Why do I get the feeling that it's always the same pathetic loser madly hammering the refresh button just so he can make a post like this every single time?
Don't worry. Soon he'll find craig's list and won't want to solicit on Slashdot anymore. ;)
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
How would you know? Was there a Spore before and after being owned by EA, or wth? Because from where I stand, it kinda looks to me like Maxis was owned by EA for a long time now.
Speaking of which, have you noticed how nobody else funded a Spore or a The Sims? I don't have much love for EA as a corporation or for their DRM, but when was the last time anyone _else_ brought a new genre to the mainstream? I can't think of anything before or after The Sims, all the way to when Id made Wolfenstein 3D. Ok, ok, there was also Ultima Online which brought us the graphical MMO... also published by EA. If you look back for two decades or so, there are exactly two companies which blessed us with new genres: Id and EA. Hmm. Maybe it says something.
Or even a new take on an existing genre? Well, Spore sure feels that way. Or the only PC single-player RPGs this decade which _weren't_ yet another medieval theme? Well, blimey, I can only think of two publishers: LucasArts publishing yet another title in their StarWars franchise (but cancelling almost anything else than SW titles) because they already knew it sells, and EA taking a chance with MassEffect. You know, at a time where everyone else was rationalizing their risk-aversion via convoluted armchair-psychologist conjectures about how players only relate to swords and can't get in-character with a gun.
The average publisher these days seems to be more about cloning whatever sold well last year. Or maybe feeling bold and trying to mix two. "I know! We'll make a Grand-Theft Battlefield Tycoon! That'll sell."
EA might not be perfect, but it seems far less risk-averse when it comes to trying new things.
So did EA screw Spore? Or maybe Spore wouldn't even have existed, if not for EA? As I was saying, I can't imagine many other publishers even trying that. New unproven game type with creatures evolving? Nah, we'll make yet another wannabe HalfLife clone.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Immediately Mod-Trolls would start deleting real posts, and there would be no way to correct for it by later up-modding.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
Well done for noticing that stating the share price performance for a single company without stating the performance of the rest of the market at the same time tells us very little about how well that comany is actually doing.
If this were really happening, what would you think?
Jebus, Buddha, Allah, I love you all! -- HJS
which is totally what she said
This isn't surprising at all.
The market is there to make money, not to promote games as art, independence, or consumer interests. If the acquisition of Take Two would have made the investors a lot of money, you can expect a negative market response when the deal falls apart.
If they had been taken over, would they have been called Take Three?
test comment to see if ISP transparent proxy settings have been updated.