THQ EYES EIDOS
FOR POSSIBLE TAKEOVER
Copyright 2004 www.tombraiderchronicles.com
[ May 13th 2004 ]
Computer
games heroine Lara Croft is being stalked. As
the big noises of the industry converged on Los
Angeles this week for the E3 trade show, rumours
have been rife that Eidos is about to get zapped
by a US predator. Up a sprightly 11p on Tuesday,
shares of the video games publisher advanced to
a year's peak of 184p before succumbing to the
general dull trend to finish 2p off at 175p.
The name
in the frame is THQ, the US games distributor
and publisher. It is believed to be ready to table
an offer comprising cash and shares, which will
value Eidos at around 280p per share, or £390m.
A stakebuilding operation has been under way since
early March. It has lifted the Eidos share price
from 125p.
In April,
the company demanded that GNI, a London-based
derivatives broker which had acquired more than
a 5% holding, should reveal the identity of the
investor behind the share purchases. No chance.
Dealers believe THQ wants to swallow Eidos to
take a leading position in the consumer electronics
business ahead of the arrival of two new hardware
platforms - Sony's PSP, its first mobile gaming
device, and Microsoft's new version of its Xbox
games console.
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