Like most other large gaming companies, Take-Two has been a part of a recent flurry of acquisition activity industry-wide. Its planned acquisition of Zynga is set to close by the end of the month, and its Private Division label snapped up Roll7 late last year. But what about Take-Two itself? Is it possible that it, like fellow major publisher Activision-Blizzard, might be acquired by a bigger gaming corporation?
For now, that seems unlikely, based on comments made by CEO Strauss Zelnick in an interview ahead of today’s full year and quarterly earnings call.
“We’re a public company, and we’re here for the shareholders,” he told IGN. “That said, our track record of creating value as an independent entireprise is pretty terrific, especially if you exclude the last three months. We think there’s plenty of great times ahead, and we like being an independent organization. But we’re here for the shareholders.”
Zelnick also offered some context for the publisher’s recent acquisitions of Zynga and Roll7. He acknowledged the reality of industry consolidation, especially over the last six months. But he added that the increase in overall indistry acquisitions wasn’t going to change anything for Take-Two, whose growth he says has “always been largely organic” but “populated with some selective acquisitions along the way.”
“We’re looking for creative deals that bring us great intellectual property and great teams, and we’ll continue to do that in the future,” he said. “Undoubtedly the Zynga transaction is exceedingly significant for this company and we have a lot of work to do collectively to make sure we deliver on the value, and the focus will be largely organic growing forward. But that will not prevent us from continuing to make acquisitions that are selective and disciplined for Private Division and the rest of the business, including the mobile part of the business.”
Zelnick also spoke to us on a few other topics, including the likelihood of Take-Two picking up the FIFA license after EA and FIFA parted ways, and the currrent fan frustration with the state of Red Dead Online.
Looking ahead, Take-Two is planning 18 new releases in the coming fiscal year, including core titles The Quarry, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, NBA 2K23, WWE 2K23, PGA Tour 2K23, and Kerbal Space Program 2. There are also eight mobile games coming, a new sports title from 2K (likely its NFL arcade game), a new franchise from Private Division, Tales from the Borderlands 2, and “one new iteration of a previously-released title available for purchase”.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.