Mr. Mad Money, Jim Cramer of CNBC, has added Strauss Zelnick to the Chief Executive Officer “Wall of Shame” for rejecting Electronic Arts’ generous takeover bid.
Reserved for shameful executives who have destroyed shareholder value, the “Wall of Shame” now stars Strauss Zelnick, the Chairman of Take-Two Interactive, who recently rejected a handsome acquisition offer from rival Electronic Arts for $26 a share, about $2 billion. Cramer called this “an offer no sane man can refuse. But Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two’s chairman did just that….”
Take-Two not only fought the acquisition, but reassured investors that “EA’s highly conditional offer fails to compensate our stockholders for our exceptional portfolio of intellectual property, world-class creative resources, and our successful revitalization initiatives.”
Now with the stock lower than it was the day before the original offer, Cramer can only label Zelnick as the “Groucho Marx” of chairmen.
Cramer, in a completely serious tone, gave Zelnick a piece of management advice: “In this market, when you get a bid, you say yes.”
“Welcome to the Wall of Shame, Strauss Zelnick,” stated Cramer as he taped a head shot of Zelnick onto a board adorned with Yahoo’s Jerry Yang, who also refused a takeover bid from Microsoft at the expense of its shareholders. “You managed to take a sure thing, a $25 stock and turn it into a $13 one. That takes talent.”
Source: CNBC, GamePolitics
