| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Traded as | NASDAQ: TTWO |
| Industry | Computer and video games Interactive entertainment |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Headquarters | New York City, United States |
| Key people | Strauss Zelnick[1] (Chairman and CEO) |
| Products | BioShock series Borderlands series Civilization series Grand Theft Auto series L.A. Noire Mafia series Manhunt series Max Payne series Midnight Club series MLB 2K series NBA 2K series NHL 2K series Railroad Tycoon series Red Dead series Bully Serious Sam series Stronghold series Tropico series Codename Eagle series |
| Revenue | US$968.5 million (2009)[2] |
| Net income | US$137.9 million (2009)[2] |
| Employees | 2,002 (2007) |
| Website | www.take2games.com |
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO) (or Take-Two, also known as Take2) is a major American publisher, developer, and distributor of video games and video game peripherals. Take-Two wholly owns 2K Games and Rockstar Games. The company's headquarters are in New York City, with international headquarters in Windsor, United Kingdom. Development studio locations include San Diego, Vancouver, Toronto and Novato, California. Take-Two has developed and published many notable games, including its most famous series Grand Theft Auto series, the Midnight Club racing series, the Manhunt series and more recently BioShock. As owner of 2K Games, Take-Two publishes its popular 2K Sports titles. It also acted as the publisher of Bethesda Softworks's 2006 game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
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Take 2 published a game called "Rats!" in 1998, the game was developed by Tarantula Games. In February 1999, Take-Two published the game Biosys under the company Jumpstart Interactive. The game is 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 paid US$22.3 million to Infogrames for the rights to the Civilization series.[3][4]
In 2005, Take-Two began a host of acquisitions, spending more than US$80 million buying game developers.[5] It bought for US$32 million the development studios Visual Concepts and Kush Games, for US$11.4 million Gaia Capital Group and for around US$11.8 million the studio Irrational Games, which developed Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich. Take-Two formed the publishing companies 2K Games and 2K Sports to manage a group of newly acquired development studios, and publishing deals with a variety of other well known studios. As part of the creation of 2K Sports, Take-Two acquired from Sega the rights to the ESPN 2K sports games created by Visual Concepts (football and basketball) and Kush Games (baseball and hockey); when announced, Take-Two renamed the franchise to omit "ESPN" from the titles. Then in November, Take-Two acquired Firaxis for US$27 million including possible performance bonuses.[6] At the annual meeting on March 29, 2007, Take-Two investors ousted five of six board members.[7]
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 and received a lighter sentence by agreeing to cooperate in a plea agreement to cooperate with prosecutors.[8] The charges stemmed from 2005 when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged in a lawsuit that Brant, the company's head of sales Robert Blau, and its former chief financial officers Larry Muller and James David Jr., inflated revenue in fiscal years 2000 and 2001. In March, 2007, ZelnickMedia staged a takeover of the company together with some of Take-Two Interactive's largest investors.[9]
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.[10] In March 2007, Take-Two filed a lawsuit against Jack Thompson, to prevent him from filing a public nuisance complaint in Florida court as he did with Bully.
On September 8, 2008, they entered into an outsourcing agreement with Ditan Distribution LLC. Ditan assumes the responsibility for the pick, pack, ship and warehousing functions for Take-Two's publishing and distribution businesses previously handled by Take-Two's Jack of All Games subsidiary. The agreement allows Jack of All Games, to primarily sell third-party products, to focus on purchasing, sales and service for their customers.[11] In September 2009, following a lawsuit, Take-Two Interactive were forced to pay a US$20 million settlement for an inclusion of a sex mini-game that was included in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. On December 21, 2009, they sold Jack of All Games to SYNNEX Corporation.[12] In May 2007, the UFC filed a lawsuit against the company over the video game they created for the organization.[13] In 2010, Ben Feder stepped down as CEO, and was replaced by executive chairman Strauss Zelnick.[14]
In mid-February 2008, rival game company Electronic Arts (EA) made a US$25 per share all cash transaction offer to the board of Take-Two, subsequently revising it to US$26 per share after being rejected and making the offer known to the public.[15] Rumors of a buyout had been floating around the internet several weeks prior.[16] Stocks went up by 54% on Monday, following the Sunday announcement, closing over the US$26 offer price, whilst EA's own stock prices went down by 5%, the largest loss in over a year.[17] According to Game Informer's April 2008 issue, EA CEO John Riccitiello said that EA considered a deal for Take-Two in the previous spring but axed it at the last minute. Take-Two's board of directors declined the cash deal. However, EA was still pursuing the acquisition of Take-Two, stating in a letter, "If you are unwilling to proceed on that basis, however, we may pursue other means, including the public disclosure of this letter, to bring our offer and the compelling value it represents to the attentions of Take-Two's shareholders." Later, Take-Two released a statement explaining why the company has rejected the offer, "In addition to undervaluing key elements of our business, EA's proposal fails to recognize the value we are building through our ongoing turnaround efforts, which will further revitalize Take-Two." Take-Two offered to discuss the offer after Grand Theft Auto IV's release on April 29, 2008. An acquisition would have ended EA's main competition in sports video games.[18] The bid expired May 15, 2008, however EA extended the offer until June 16, 2008, at the same price of US$25.74 per share. Take-Two's position did not change and on September 14, 2008, EA announced that they decided to let the US$2 billion offer to buy Take-Two expire.
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