Take-Two dumps minority shareholder with investor oversight.
Grand Theft Auto V publisher Take-Two Interactive will buy back a large chunk of its stock from longtime investor Carl Icahn. Take-Two will purchase just over 12 million shares at $16.93 per share, amounting to $203.5M.
The decision comes in the wake of Grand Theft Auto V‘s record-setting sales, which crossed the billion-dollar mark shortly after its September release. According to Bloomberg, Take-Two has dramatically raised their annual projected profits to $325.6M.
“This share repurchase reflects our confidence in the company’s outlook for record results in fiscal 2014,” said Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick in a prepared statement.
As part of the deal, three Take-Two board members appointed by Icahn – Brett Icahn, Jim Nelson and SungHwan Cho – will step down immediately, as per an agreement made when the Icahn Investor Group bought into the company. Icahn initially invested in Take-Two in 2010, purchasing approximately 11 percent of the company’s stock. The group increased their stake slightly in the last year, controlling 12.9 percent of the publisher before the deal.
Meanwhile, Take-Two is in the process of a wide-reaching stock buyback plan. The company has repurchased $4.2M in stock. The $7.5M company has allotted for the deal is separate from the funds used for the purchase.
Sources: Game Informer, Bloomberg, Reuters
