Overview
Take-Two (officially Take-Two Interactive Software) is an American video game publisher and developer headquartered in New York City. The company owns many development studios, most notably Rockstar North, the creators of the popular Grand Theft Auto franchise. Take-Two has published and developed many popular IPs including; Grand Theft Auto, Bioshock, Midnight Club, Mafia, Bully, Manhunt, NBA 2K, MLB 2K, NHL 2K, and many more. Take-Two maintains development studios in Scotland, London, Vancouver, Toronto, Novato, San Diego among other locations. Take-Two was founded in 1993, and has since become one of the top publishers in the game industry.
History
In 1993 Take-Two published one of its first major games, Biosys, a PC adventure game, set in an artificial biosphere facility. The company's next major historical event was in 2005, when it created its present day publishing arms, 2K Sports and 2K Games, in order to offer more concentrated management for its increasing portfolio of game genres. Take-Two acquired the rights to the 2K sports license, the baseball and hockey sports from Kush Games and the football and basketball sports from Visual Concepts, as well as the rights to the Civilization franchise. The following year, in 2005, Take-Two acquired a number of videogame developers. The company purchased the development house of Irrational Games for approximately $11.4 million, as well as, the development studios Kush Game and Visual Concepts for $32 million. Later that year, it purchased Firaxis for $27 million.
On May 2007, Take-Two agreed to a deal with Oasys Mobile for the introduction of the Sid Meier franchise to the mobile phone market, developed by Firaxis Games, which had been purchased by Take-Two two years before. In March of that same year, Take-Two filed a lawsuit against happiness hater Jack Thompson, in order to halt him from filing a public nuisance in the State of Florida. In September 8, 2008 Take-Two signed an agreement with Ditan Distribution LLC, in which it, Ditan Distribution, agrees to the role of packaging, shipping, and storage functions which Take-Two had previously done by its self through its subsidiary Jack of All Games.
Failed Electronic Arts Take Over
Two pieces that didn't fitIn February of 2008, rival publisher Electronic Arts offered an acquisition deal of Take-Two Interactive Software for approximately two billion dollars. The offer was declined by Take-Two's board of directors. Electronic Arts was not sufficed with a negative on the deal, and so it tried to persuade the company by threatening Take-Two that if it did not accept the offer it would attempt a "hostile" take over by convincing Take-Two's shareholders of accepting the deal. The Take-Two board of directors spent an undisclosed amount of money convincing its own shareholders not to accept Electronic Arts' proposal. The shareholders did not sell their stocks in the company, and by September 2008, Electronic Arts let go of the proposal and said in a statement that it had allowed the the two billion dollar proposal expire. In the end, Electronic Arts' hostile take over bid of Take-Two Interactive Software ultimately failed.
Development Studios (2K & Rockstar)
2K - Headquarted in Novato, California, USA
Rockstar Games - Headquartered in New York, New York, USA
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