EIDOS FRENZY AMID ACQUISITION RUMOURS
Copyright 2002 www.tombraiderchronicles.com

[ November 26th 2002 ]

Eidos Interactive has witnessed heavy trading on its share price amid speculation of an acquisition spree by Activision, the second largest computer games publisher in the United States. The games giant filed for $500 million worth of new securities with US regulators last week, and nods from brokers Evolution Beeson Gregory has rallied trading sending Eidos' share price to 150 at close of trade today, the second highest in six months.

Eidos recently announced that phenomenal sales figures for both Hitman 2: Silent Assassin and Timesplitters 2 has helped the company achieve its highest market share in the United States for over four years and in the United Kingdom for almost two years. In October, Eidos was ranked number three in the US with a market share of 6.9 pct, based on total revenues and number two in the UK with a market share of 9.9 pct.

In the US Hitman 2: Silent Assassin was the third biggest-selling game on all formats and TimeSplitters 2 was the eighth. In the UK Hitman 2: Silent Assassin was the top selling game on all formats and TimeSplitters 2 was the fifth. During October, Eidos stole the crown from Nintendo's Super Mario by sending Hitman 2: Silent Assassin to numero uno in the all-formats ELSPA charts compiled by ChartTrack, the watchdog responsible for monitoring and reporting on sales of music, video and software via retailers' EPOS systems.