Q&A With Riccitiello on EA's Take Two Bid

Gamasutra is featuring an in-depth question and answer column with EA's CEO, John Riccitiello. The Q&A covers EA's recent 'bid' of $2 billion for Take 2. Here's a portion of the article:

On why and how long EA has been interested in Take Two:

"EA's been interested for a very long time, you probably remember stories [about a party interested in acquiring Take Two] from March/April last year... that was Electronic Arts. They have some of the world's best studios and intellectual properties."

On why the announcement of the rebuffed acquisition attempt has been made public:

"We wanted to bring it to shareholder attention. If the board continues to resist, the shareholder loses."

And from Gamespot's interview:

GS: Take-Two has issued its own press release today, and it characterizes EA's offer as an attempt to get on the Grand Theft Auto IV bandwagon just before the game's hugely anticipated launch.

JR: That's sort of interesting, but I would offer a couple of thoughts. I think the value of GTA is already "baked in" in many ways. The analysts that are forecasting Take-Two for just their fiscal year have between 8 million and 12 million units of GTA IV forecast. Frankly, the question is what comes after GTA, because that's already in the value of the stock. Realistically, we don't anticipate closing the deal before GTA ships. We're anticipating a transaction that would close certainly not before the GTA launch, so that feels very much like a red herring to me.

Sounds more like applying the thumbscrews and ramping up the pressure. What do you think? Head to our forums and voice your thoughts.