EA almost bought Take-Two a year ago

Lots more to come on this week's big news, but the most interesting tidbit from EA's conference call that just ended may have been this: According to EA, the same deal almost happened a year ago.

CEO John Riccitiello said that in March and April of 2007, which is just when he was joining the company, EA was "very serious about concluding a transaction" and "got very close to making a proposal." But at "the eleventh hour" Riccitiello said he recommended that the EA board not pursue acquiring Take-Two because it wasn't ready to handle the integration. This is before the publisher restructured itself with four labels, brought in new executives like casual games topper Kathy Vrabeck and sports topper Peter Moore, and acquired Bioware/Pandemic.

"I didn't want EA to drop the ball one execution [and] I purposely waited until late this summer to reach out again after we had established our new stragegy," Riccitiello said. Apparently he then began informal discussions with Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick last summer and started formal discussions about an acquisition in December, with Take 2 saying it was uninterested in January and then two official offers coming in February, both of which, as we now know, were rejected.

Haven't heard Take-Two's side of this story yet, but it's interesting to hear that EA almost bought the company just as Zelnick and CEO Ben Feder were starting their jobs. If Riccitiello's version of history is correct, the new management team might have ended up doing nothing more than take over a scandal ridden company and immediately sell it, instead of becoming major industry players as they are now.

Update, 5:35 PM: Strauss Zelnick told me that EA's aborted takeover bid last year came just before he was named chairman. So it looks like if EA hadn't backed out, Zelnick woud never have taken over Take-Two.