T2 Stock Drops Almost 25% on EA Breakoff

Rumor Suggests Houser Bros. Status Was Dealbreaker

Lehman Brothers, AIG, and the other major financial players were not the only ones hard hit by a 500+ point drop on Wall Street yesterday.

After news broke of Electronic Arts cutting off acquisition talks with Take Two Interactive, T2 stock tanked.  Early in the trading day Monday the stock tanked below $16 a share  before recovering slightly to close at $16.57 a share–a loss of more than 24 percent on the day.

There’s no guarantee T2 stock will get better, either.

Rumors have surfaced on gamesindustry.biz that a possible dealbreaker between EA and T2 involves the status of two key figures at developer Rockstar Games, Sam and Dan Houser.  The brothers were the original brains behind the Grand Theft Auto franchise.  Their contracts with Rockstar expire next February and there evidently is a big bidding war for their talent with competing development houses.

Expectations are that until the fate of the Housers are known, no one will be seriously looking at acquiring Take Two.

EA stock took a bit of a hit as well on the news; their Monday close was $43.30 a share, a loss of more than four percent on the day.