Take-Two Trying to Buy Time

Take-Two Interactive's board, remaining adamant that an unsolicited tender offer by Electronic Arts of $26 a share undervalues the company, has officially passed on the deal and has asked its shareholders to take no action on the matter by refraining from taking any of their shares to EA.

Take-Two has also filed a supplement to the proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to moot any claims alleged in a class-action lawsuit that the proxy was misleading and incomplete, and has also adopted a shareholder rights agreement and certificate of designation for a new class of Series B Preferred Stock. The agreement will be outstanding for 180 days.

Moreover, the company has changed the date and time of its annual meeting to Thursday, April 17, at 6:30 p.m. (EST).

“Take-Two's board and senior management team were put in place less than one year ago with one mandate: maximize stockholder value,” said Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two chairman in a statement. “We have maintained a single-minded focus on that goal ever since and it remains the guiding principle in every decision we make with regard to Take-Two. Our board, after careful review, has unanimously determined that Electronic Arts' offer continues to provide insufficient value and remains opportunistically timed to capture the value of the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV launch at the expense of our stockholders.”