EIDOS SHARE PRICE CONTINUES TO RISE
Copyright 2000 www.tombraiderchronicles.com

[ August 15th 2000 ]

Eidos Interactive, the Lara Croft video games company, gained 4 per cent after it said it is still in bid talks, although would not name any interested parties. Earlier this month, software giant Infogrammes said it was pressing ahead with plans to acquire UK computer games group Eidos. A deal expected to value the creator of virtual cyber-heroine Lara Croft at up to £700m ($1.06bn) had reached final stages earlier though it could still fall through over valuation and management issues. Other software groups, including Ubi Soft, Electronic Arts and Microsoft have approached Eidos.

Eidos Interactive was founded in 1990 when it excelled in the video compression technology for many years and moved into the software market in 1995. Eidos strengthened its position as one of the major software houses in 1996 with the acquisition of Centregold Group who owned Core Design and US Gold, although the distribution element was soon sold to a management buyout while Eidos focused more on the software and entertainment industry.

Eidos Interactive now has 567 employees world-wide (including more than 250 developers) together with access to a further 650 developers at associated companies, and year end March 1999 produced a turnover of £223 million.