In the gaming industry, acquisitions are pretty prevalent and much like any business, I think we’ll be seeing more company acquisitions in the future.
Heck, it’s just February in 2008 and we’ve already seen quite a few acquisitions*; even though some are just rumors, just the idea makes the hair on the back of my neck stand-up.
American media conglomerate Viacom has huge interests in various entertainment departments including television (MTV and BET) and movies (Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks). Over on GamesIndustry.biz, they spin the latest rumor that Viacom is interested in acquiring Take-Two Interactive, who owns numerous subsidiaries and game franchises – including GTA.
One of the primary reasons for the acquisition rumors is that Viacom is simply interested in getting into the video games industry. Viacom has had slight brushes with the gaming industry before, such as striking a $500 million deal with Microsoft to supply media for the Xbox Live marketplace and former Viacom vice chair person, Shari Redstone, became the new chairman of the board for gaming publisher Midway.
Another reason is that Take-Two is financially struggling after a string of media criticism and they’re ripe for an acquisition. But the contrary says that following the success of several recent games, including BioShock and Carnival Games, Take-Two may be on the turnaround.
Still, this is a heavy rumor and would be a heck of an acquisition; GamerNode will keep you posted.
*NVIDIA to acquire AGEIA, THQ acquired Big Huge Games, Valve acquired Turtle Rock Studios and rumored: Microsoft to acquire Logitech.
