Personal Links May Keep Electronic Arts' Offer for Take-Two Alive

Electronic Arts Inc [EA] (NASDAQ:ERTS) extended the deadline of its buyout offer to Take-Two Interactive Software Inc (NASDAQ:TTWO), the maker of Grand Theft Auto, by a month, according to The New York Times.

"EA’s offer will now expire on May 16 instead of 11:59 p.m. Friday. As of Thursday, about 6.4 million shares of Take-Two had been tendered, representing roughly 8 percent of Take-Two’s outstanding shares," The Times reported in its article.

The close personal connections between the members of both EA’s and Take-Two’s Boards of Directors could serve to keep the merger negotiations going.

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NewsVisual created an IntellectSpace Knowledge Map that illustrates key past and current corporate connections that could have an impact on future discussions between the companies.

The most noteworthy link connects EA and Take-Two through Mark Sanders Lewis, who was with EA for fifteen years as a Senior Executive and later served as a Director at Take-Two between 2001 and 2007.
Other interesting relationships involve Directors and Executives from either company that may be well acquainted through a common entity. EA Director Leonard S Coleman Jr and Take-Two Director Robert A Bowman may know each other, since each has held various senior positions during overlapping years with Major League Baseball.

The Knowledge Map shows numerous other sets of relationships through common connections that link past members of the leadership teams at EA and Take-Two, which could have been pivotal in starting discussions and may also become useful in facilitating negotiations in the near future.

To see the details of these connections, click here for an interactive and fuller version of this IntellectSpace Knowledge Map.

(Note: the information contained and presented in Knowledge Maps is public information from the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States of America).