Viacom's not making a bid for Take Two

Just spoke to a very good source -- someone who would know -- who told me the same thing that Reuters just recently reported: there's no truth to the rumor on MCV,  subsequent picked up by numerous websites, that Viacom has made a $1.5 billion bid for Take Two.

You can be sure that Viacom, like other big media congloms, has looked at a number of videogame publishers as potential acquisitions. And you can be sure that Take Two, given that it has some valuable properties but isn't nearly as expensive as EA or Activision/Blizzard, is high on the list of potential targets for all of them. But there's no offer on the table from Viacom to buy Take Two.

(If Viacom ever does buy a videogame  publisher, it will be very interesting if it's not Midway, in which Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone has a controlling ownership stake and has his daughter Shari serving as chairman.)