Analyst predicts Take-Two acquisition coming soon

After the news of the soon-to-be Activision-Blizzard merger, it seems there’s a growing anticipation for consolidation within the game industry. The latest in the merger rumor mill is the one analyst’s prediction that Take-Two Interactive would be taken up by another game entity. Find out who’s top on Hickey’s list at the full story.

Analyst Mike Hickey from Janco Partners predicts that Take-Two Interactive will “eventually be acquired” if the offered price is right, despite previous downplays of such speculations by Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two. If earlier rumors told of a Microsoft acquisition, this one’s more of a “up for grabs” deal.

However, Hickey’s prior expectations drew Electronic Arts into the mix. The superstar publisher was noted for its acquisition of both Pandemic and BioWare for a hefty sum of US$ 855 million, and Hickey anticipates that EA may find Take-Two’s current intellectual property lineup worthy of exploration. These IPs are, but not limited to:

• Grand Theft Auto
• BioShock
• Midnight Club
• Civilization
• Bully
• Red Dead Revolver
• Manhunt
• Carnival Games
• Max Payne

In fact, the analyst anticipates that the idea of turning Grand Theft Auto into a fully-fledged massively multiplayer online game, offering any takers a means to increase growth. Hickey also estimates that the company’s entire worth could be “well over” US$ 1 billion and that includes an approximated average sales turnout of more than US$ 400 million.