Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: TTWO
Industry	Computer and video games Interactive entertainment
Founded	1993
Founder(s)	Ryan Brant
Headquarters	New York City, United States
Key people	Strauss Zelnick[1] (Chairman and CEO)
Products	BioShock series Borderlands series Bully Civilization series Codename Eagle series Duke Nukem series Grand Theft Auto series L.A. Noire Mafia series Manhunt series Max Payne series Midnight Club series MLB 2K series NBA 2K series NHL 2K series Railroad Tycoon series Red Dead series Serious Sam series Stronghold series Tropico series
Revenue	US$1.136 billion (2011)[2]
Operating income	US$77.14 million (2011)[2]
Net income	US$48.46 million (2011)[2]
Total assets	US$971.66 million (2011)[2]
Total equity	US$615.28 million (2011)[2]
Employees	2,118 (September 2011)[3]
Website	Take2games.com

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO) (or Take-Two, also known as Take2) is a major American publisher, developer, and distributor of video games and video game peripherals. Take-Two wholly owns 2K Games and Rockstar Games. The company's headquarters are in New York City, with international headquarters in Windsor, United Kingdom. Development studio locations include San Diego, Vancouver, Toronto and Novato, California. Take-Two has developed and published many notable games, including its most famous series Grand Theft Auto series, the Midnight Club racing series, the Manhunt series and Mafia and more recently BioShock . As owner of 2K Games, Take-Two publishes its popular 2K Sports titles. It also acted as the publisher of Bethesda Softworks's 2006 game, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

History[link]

This section is incomplete. Please help to improve the article, or discuss the issue on the talk page. (December 2010)

Take-Two was founded in 1993 by Ryan Brant, the son of Peter Brant, newsprint heir and co-owner of Interview magazine. In March 1998, Take-Two strengthened itself in a number of areas by acquiring the BMG Interactive unit from Bertlesmann AG for approximately $14.2 million. Take 2 published a game called "Rats!" in 1998, the game was developed by Tarantula Games. In February 1999 Take-Two published the game Biosys through the company Jumpstart Interactive. The game is a point-and-click adventure which follows the protagonist Professor Alan Russell and is set inside the fictional ecological facility Biosphere Four. In July 1999 they published Hidden & Dangerous, one of the pioneering tactical first/third person shooters, and its follow-up Hidden & Dangerous 2 in 2003. In 2004, Take-Two paid US$22.3 million to Infogrames for the rights to the Civilization series.^[4][5]

In 2005, Take-Two began a host of acquisitions, spending more than US$80 million buying game developers.^[6] It bought for US$32 million the development studios Visual Concepts and Kush Games, for US$11.4 million Gaia Capital Group and for around US$11.8 million the studio Irrational Games, which developed Freedom Force vs The 3rd Reich. Take-Two formed the publishing companies 2K Games and 2K Sports to manage a group of newly acquired development studios, and publishing deals with a variety of other well known studios. As part of the creation of 2K Sports, Take-Two acquired from Sega the rights to the ESPN 2K sports games created by Visual Concepts (football and basketball) and Kush Games (baseball and hockey); when announced, Take-Two renamed the franchise to omit "ESPN" from the titles. Then in November, Take-Two acquired Firaxis for US$27 million including possible performance bonuses.^[7] At the annual meeting on March 29, 2007, Take-Two investors ousted five of six board members.^[8]

In February 2007 Ryan Brant pleaded guilty to falsifying business records. He faced up to four years in prison and received a lighter sentence by agreeing to cooperate in a plea agreement to cooperate with prosecutors.^[9] The charges stemmed from 2005 when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged in a lawsuit that Brant, the company's head of sales Robert Blau, and its former chief financial officers Larry Muller and James David Jr., inflated revenue in fiscal years 2000 and 2001. In March, 2007, ZelnickMedia staged a takeover of the company together with some of Take-Two Interactive's largest investors.^[10]

On May 22, 2007, Oasys Mobile signed a deal to bring several of the Sid Meier licenses to the mobile market. The original Sid Meier games are developed by Take-Two's company Firaxis Games. Oasys will be bringing these games to the mobile market some time in 2008.^[11] In March 2007, Take-Two filed a lawsuit against Jack Thompson, to prevent him from filing a public nuisance complaint in Florida court as he did with Bully.

On September 8, 2008, they entered into an outsourcing agreement with Ditan Distribution LLC. Ditan assumes the responsibility for the pick, pack, ship and warehousing functions for Take-Two's publishing and distribution businesses previously handled by Take-Two's Jack of All Games subsidiary. The agreement allows Jack of All Games, to primarily sell third-party products, to focus on purchasing, sales and service for their customers.^[12] In September 2009, following a lawsuit, Take-Two Interactive were forced to pay a US$20 million settlement for an inclusion of a sex mini-game that was included in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. On December 21, 2009, they sold Jack of All Games to SYNNEX Corporation.^[13] In May 2007, the UFC filed a lawsuit against the company over the video game they created for the organization.^[14] In 2010, Ben Feder stepped down as CEO, and was replaced by executive chairman Strauss Zelnick.^[15]

Attempted takeover by Electronic Arts[link]

In mid-February 2008, rival game company Electronic Arts (EA) made a US$25 per share all cash transaction offer to the board of Take-Two, subsequently revising it to US$26 per share after being rejected and making the offer known to the public.^[16] Rumors of a buyout had been floating around the internet several weeks prior.^[17] Stocks went up by 54% on Monday, following the Sunday announcement, closing over the US$26 offer price, whilst EA's own stock prices went down by 5%, the largest loss in over a year.^[18]

According to Game Informer's April 2008 issue, EA CEO John Riccitiello said that EA considered a deal for Take-Two in the previous spring but axed it at the last minute. Take-Two's board of directors declined the cash deal. However, EA was still pursuing the acquisition of Take-Two, stating in a letter, "If you are unwilling to proceed on that basis, however, we may pursue other means, including the public disclosure of this letter, to bring our offer and the compelling value it represents to the attentions of Take-Two's shareholders." Later, Take-Two released a statement explaining why the company has rejected the offer, "In addition to undervaluing key elements of our business, EA's proposal fails to recognize the value we are building through our ongoing turnaround efforts, which will further revitalize Take-Two."

Take-Two offered to discuss the offer after Grand Theft Auto IV's release on April 29, 2008. An acquisition would have ended EA's main competition in sports video games.^[19] The bid expired May 15, 2008, however EA extended the offer until June 16, 2008, at the same price of US$25.74 per share. Take-Two's position did not change and on September 14, 2008, EA announced that they decided to let the US$2 billion offer to buy Take-Two expire.

Subsidiaries[link]

Current[link]

• Rockstar Games, Ltd. in New York City, founded in 1998
  • Rockstar North in Edinburgh, Scotland, founded in 1988 as DMA Design, acquired from Infogrames in September 1999, world famous for the Grand Theft Auto series
  • Rockstar Leeds in West Yorkshire, England, founded as Mobius Entertainment in 1997
  • Rockstar Japan in Tokyo, Japan, started 2005
  • Rockstar London, started in 2005
  • Rockstar Vancouver, founded in May 1998 as Barking Dog Studios, acquired August 2002
  • Rockstar San Diego, founded in 1984 as Angel Studios, acquired November 2002
  • Rockstar Toronto in Ontario, Canada, started as Rockstar Canada in 1999
  • Rockstar Lincoln in Lincolnshire, England, founded in 1997 as Tarantula Studios
  • Rockstar New England in Andover, Massachusetts, founded in 1999 as Mad Doc Software
• Take-Two Licensing, founded on September 11, 2000, as TDK Mediactive, acquired in December 2003^[20]
• 2K Games in Novato, California, founded in 2005^[21]
  • Firaxis Games in Hunt Valley, Maryland, founded in 1996, acquired in 2005
  • Irrational Games in Quincy, Massachusetts, acquired on January 9, 2006
  • 2K China, established in 2006
  • 2K Czech in Brno, Czech Republic, founded in 1997 as Illusion Softworks, acquired in 2007^[22]
  • 2K Marin in Novato, California and Canberra, Australia, started in 2007
  • 2K Play in Ontario, Canada, founded as Global Star Software in 1992, acquired in 1999, name changed September 10, 2007
  • 2K Sports in California, founded as Visual Concepts, acquired from Sega in January 2005

Defunct[link]

• 2K Australia in Canberra, Australia, folded into 2K Marin^[23]
• Frog City Software in San Francisco, California, founded in 1995, acquired by Gathering of Developers in 2004, consolidated into Firaxis Games in 2006
• Gathering of Developers in Texas, founded January 1998, acquired May 2000, closed September 2004; brands merged into Rockstar and 2K
• Gotham Games, started in 2002, eventually closed
• Indie Built, Inc. in Salt Lake City, Utah, founded as Access Software in 1983, acquired from Microsoft in 2004; closed April 28, 2006
• Kush Games in Camarillo, California closed in 2008
• PopTop Software in St. Louis, Missouri, founded in 1993, merged into Firaxis Games in 2006
• TalonSoft in Baltimore, Maryland, founded in 1995, acquired in 2000, closed in 2005; most brands sold to Matrix Games
• Rockstar Vienna, founded January 4, 1993, as neo Software, closed May 11, 2006
• Venom Games, Ltd. in Newcastle upon Tyne, founded in 2003, acquired in September 2004; closed in July 2008
• PAM Development in Paris, France, founded in 1997, acquired in 2006; closed in 2008

Sold[link]

• Jack of All Games in West Chester Township, Butler County, Ohio, founded in 1990 as Hyde Park Distributors, and acquired in 1998, sold December 21, 2009, to SYNNEX Corporation

References[link]

External links[link]

• Take-Two official website
• Take-Two Interactive entry at MobyGames

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There are many people in history who are commonly appended with the phrase "the Great", or who were called that or an equivalent phrase in their own language. Other languages have their own suffixes such as e Bozorg and e azam in Persian and Urdu respectively.

In Persia, the title "the Great" at first seems to be a colloquial version of the Old Persian title "Great King". This title was first used by the conqueror Cyrus II of Persia.^[1]

The Persian title was inherited by Alexander III of Macedon (336–323 BC) when he conquered the Persian Empire, and the epithet "Great" eventually became personally associated with him. The first reference (in a comedy by Plautus)^[2] assumes that everyone knew who "Alexander the Great" was; however, there is no earlier evidence that Alexander III of Macedon was called "the Great".

The early Seleucid kings, who succeeded Alexander in Persia, used "Great King" in local documents, but the title was most notably used for Antiochus the Great (223–187 BC).

Later rulers and commanders began to use the epithet "the Great" as a personal name, like the Roman general Pompey. Others received the surname retrospectively, like the Carthaginian Hanno and the Indian emperor Ashoka the Great. Once the surname gained currency, it was also used as an honorific surname for people without political careers, like the philosopher Albert the Great.

As there are no objective criteria for "greatness", the persistence of later generations in using the designation greatly varies. For example, Louis XIV of France was often referred to as "The Great" in his lifetime but is rarely called such nowadays, while Frederick II of Prussia is still called "The Great". A later Hohenzollern - Wilhelm I - was often called "The Great" in the time of his grandson Wilhelm II, but rarely later.

Rulers[link]

• Abbas I of Persia (1571–1629), Shah of Iran
• Akbar (1542–1605), ruler of the Mughal Empire of South Asia, mainly India
• Alain I of Albret (1440–1522), French aristocrat
• Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), King of Macedonia, Persia, Greece, Egypt, and all of Mesopotamia
• Alexander I of Georgia (1386–1446), King of Georgia
• Alfonso III of León (c. 848-910), King of León, Galicia and Asturias
• Alfred the Great (848/849-899), King of Wessex
• Antiochus III the Great (c. 241–187 BC), ruler of the Seleucid Empire
• Ashoka the Great (c. 304–232 BC), Indian emperor of the Maurya dynasty
• Ashot I of Iberia “the Great”(died 826/830), presiding prince of Iberia (modern Georgia),
• Askia Mohammad I (c. 1442–1538), ruler of the Songhai Empire
• Bhumibol Adulyadej (born 1927), King of Thailand
• Bolesław I Chrobry (967-1025), sometimes called "the Great", first King of Poland
• Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Lotharingia (also listed in the following section)
• Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke (1736–1809), founder and ruler of the Rattanakosin Kingdom (in what is now Thailand)
• Cnut the Great (c. 985 or 995-1035), King of Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden
• Casimir III the Great (1310–1370), King of Poland
• Catherine the Great (1729–1796), Empress of Russia
• Chandragupta II (reigned 375-413/415), also known as Vikramaditya, ruler of the Gupta empire in India
• Charlemagne (died 814), King of the Franks and Emperor of the Romans
• Chulalongkorn (1853–1910), King of Siam (now Thailand)
• Chlothar II (584-629), King of Neustria and King of the Franks
• Conrad, Margrave of Meissen (c. 1097-1157), Margrave of Meissen
• Constantine I (c. 272-337), Roman emperor
• Cyaxares the Great (c. 625-585 BC), third king of Media
• Cyrus the Great (c. 600 BC or 576 BC–530 BC), founder and ruler of the Persian or Achaemenid Empire
• Darius the Great (550 – 486 BC), third ruler of the Persian Empire
• Devapala (died 850), ruler of the Pala Empire in the Indian subcontinent
• Dionysius I, Greek tyrant of Syracuse^[3]
• Ferdinand I of León and Castile (c. 1015–1065), King of León and Count of Castile
• Frederick the Great (1712–1786), King of Prussia
• Genghis Khan (1162?-1227), founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire
• Gero (c. 900–965), ruler of Marca Geronis, a very large march in Europe
• Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (1594–1632), King of Sweden, founder of the Swedish Empire, and noted military leader
• Gwanggaeto the Great, King of Goguryeo, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea^[4][5]
• Hanno the Great, the name of three leaders of Carthage, in the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd centuries BC
• Henry I, Duke of Burgundy (946–1002)
• Henry IV of France (1553–1610), King of France and King of Navarre
• Herod the Great (73/74 BC-4 BC), King of Judea
• Hugh the Great (898-956), Duke of the Franks and Count of Paris
• Hugh Magnus of France (1007–1025), co-King of France
• Hugh I, Count of Vermandois (1057–1101)
• Humphrey I de Bohun (died c. 1123), Anglo-Norman aristocrat
• Ivan III of Russia (1440–1505), Tsar of Russia
• John I of Portugal (1358–1433), King of Portugal and the Algarve
• John II of Aragon (1398–1479), King of Aragon and, through his wife, King of Navarre
• Justinian I (483-565), Byzantine Emperor
• Kamehameha I (c. 1758-1819), first King of Hawai'i
• Kanishka (died c. 127), ruler of the Kushan Empire in Central Asia and parts of India
• Kvirike III of Kakheti (1010–1029), King of Kakheti in eastern Georgia
• Kublai Khan (1215–1294), Mongol ruler in the 13th century and Emperor of China; founder of the Yuan Dynasty
• Llywelyn the Great (c. 1172–1240), Prince of Gwynedd and de facto ruler of most of Wales
• Louis I of Hungary (1326–1382), King of Hungary, Croatia and Poland
• Mangrai the Great (1238–1317), Lanna, northern Thailand
• Emperor Meiji (1852–1912), Emperor of Japan
• Mircea I of Wallachia (1355–1418)
• Mithridates II of Parthia (died 88 BC), ruler of the Parthian Empire (in present day Iran)
• Mithridates VI of Pontus (134 BC–63 BC), ruler of Pontus and the Bosporan Kingdom
• Mstislav I of Kiev (1076–1132), Grand Prince of Kievan Rus
• Naresuan (1555–1605), King of Ayutthaya
• Narai (1633–1688), King of Ayutthaya (in what is now modern Thailand)
• Odo the Great (died c. 735), Duke of Aquitaine
• Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (912-973)
• K'inich Janaab' Pakal (603-683), ruler of the Mayan city-state of Palenque
• Parakramabahu I of Polonnaruwa (1123–1186), King of Sri Lanka
• Peter Krešimir IV of Croatia (died 1075), King of Croatia
• Peter the Great (1672–1725), Tsar of Russia
• Peter III of Aragon (1239–1285), King of Aragon and King of Sicily
• Pompey (106 BC-48 BC), military and political leader of the late Roman Republic, rival of Julius Caesar
• Radama I (1793–1828), first king of greater Madagascar
• Raja Raja Chola I (c. 947-1014), Indian emperor of the Cholas.^[6][7][8]
• Rajendra Chola I (reigned 1014–1044), Tamil King of India
• Ramesses II (reigned 1279 BC – 1213 BC), considered the greatest pharaoh of Ancient Egypt
• Ram Khamhaeng (around 1237 to 1247-1298), King of Sukhothai (in present day Thailand)
• Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona (1082–1131), also Count of Provence and various other counties
• Rhodri the Great (c. 820–878), King of Gwynedd (in present day Wales)
• Roman the Great (after 1160-1205), Grand Prince of Kiev
• Saladin (c. 1138-1193), Kurdish Sultan of Egypt and Syria, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, and victor over the Crusaders
• Samudragupta (c. 335–375), ruler of the Gupta empire in the Indian subcontinent
• Sancho III of Navarre (c. 992-1035), King of Kingdom of Navarre
• Sargon of Akkad (died c. 2215 BC), ruler of the Akkadian Empire
• Sejong the Great (1397–1450), Korean king^[9]
• Shapur II (309-379), king of the Sassanid Empire, Persia
• Simeon I of Bulgaria (864/865-927), ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire
• Stephen III of Moldavia (1433–1504), Prince of Moldavia (Romania)
• Stephen Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia (c. 1308-1355), King of Serbia and Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks
• Taksin (1734–1782), King of the Thonburi Kingdom (Thailand)
• Tamar (1160-1123), Queen of the Georgian Empire
• Timur (1336–1405), better known as Tamerlane, founder of the Timurid Dynasty
• Theobald II, Count of Champagne (1090–1151), Count of Blois and of Chartres as Theobald IV, Count of Champagne and of Brie
• Theodoric the Great (454-526), King of the Ostrogoths, regent of the Visigoths and a viceroy of the Byzantine Empire
• Theodosius I (347-395), Roman emperor
• Tigranes the Great (140-55 BC), Emperor of Armenia
• Tiridates III of Armenia (285-339), King of Armenia
• Umar (c. 586 to 590–644), second caliph of the Muslim Empire
• Valdemar I of Denmark (1131–1182), King of Denmark
• Valentinian I (364-375), Roman Emperor
• Vladimir I of Kiev (c. 958-1015), ruler of Kievan Rus
• Vytautas (c. 1350-1430), archduke of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy
• William I, Count of Burgundy (1020–1087), Count of Burgandy and Mâcon
• William V, Duke of Aquitaine (969-1030), also Count of Poitou
• Xerxes I (519-465 BC), King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire (Persia)
• Yu the Great (c. 2200-2100 BC), legendary ruler in ancient China

Religious figures[link]

• Abraham the Great of Kashkar (ca. 492-586), monk and saint of the Assyrian Church of the East
• Abraham Kidunaia (died c. 366, hermit, priest, and Christian saint of Mesopotamia
• Albertus Magnus (1193/1206–1280), medieval German philosopher and theologian
• Anthony the Great (c. 251–356), early Christian saint of Egypt
• Babai the Great (c. 551–628), Assyrian church leader
• Basil of Caesarea (330-379), Greek bishop and theologian
• Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Lotharingia (also listed in the previous section)
• Euthymius the Great (377-473), abbot and Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox saint
• Gertrude the Great (1256-c. 1302), German Benedictine, mystic, theologian and Roman Catholic saint
• Pope Gregory I (c. 540-604)
• Hiyya the Great, 3rd-century rabbi, Palestine
• Pope John Paul II (1920–2005)
• Pope Leo I (c. 391 or 400-461)
• Macarius of Egypt (c. 300-391), Egyptian hermit
• Pope Nicholas I (c. 800-867)
• Photius I of Constantinople (c. 810–c. 893), Eastern Orthodox saint and Patriarch of Constantinople
• William of Maleval (died 1157), founder of the Catholic congregation of Williamites

Other[link]

• Beli Mawr, a figure in medieval Welsh literature and genealogies
• Emmy the Great, folk singer
• Matteo Rosso the Great, Roman politician and father of Pope Nicholas III
• Prokop the Great, Hussite general in Bohemia

See also[link]

• Epithet
• List of monarchs by nickname
• List of nicknames of European Royalty and Nobility: G-I
• James, son of Zebedee, also known as James the Greater, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus
• Ajax (mythology), called Ajax the Greater
• Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, whose common honorific "Mahatma" means "Great Soul"

Notes[link]