Yesterday, GamePolitics pointed out the hypocrisy of indicted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who publicly fretted about Grand Theft Auto's cartoon crime but himself managed to carry out what the U.S. Attorney alleges was a political corruption crime spree.
The Wall Street Journal's Deal Journal blog has come up with a different video game angle on the Blagojevich affair, remarking that the disgraved Guv should have paid more attention to this year's failed EA-Take-Two merger:
Before Illinois Gov. Blagojevich allegedly tried to auction off President-elect Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder, he might have taken a closer look at the state of deal making this year–which would have told him it never would have worked.
Deal Journal compiled some lessons from this year’s M&A market that might have kept Blogajevich from following temptation into a federal indictment.
Don’t assume you are the only game in town: If prosecutors are right, Blagojevich, accused of looking for either lucre or favors in return for Obama’s Senate seat, made an oft-seen mistake: he believed he had more leverage than he did. Take-Two Interactive Software–maker of the Grand Theft Auto videogame–made the same mistake when it pushed rival Electronic Arts to bid up, up, up for the company. But EA tired of being toyed with and walked away.
The WSJ also jokingly relates Blagojevich's relentless pursuit of graft to several other non-game biz deals.
Comments
Re: Wall Street Journal Compares Crooked Ill Guv's Mistakes to
Wait wait wait...didn't EA LOWER the bidding price each time? Their example makes no sense.
Re: Wall Street Journal Compares Crooked Ill Guv's Mistakes to
Yeah, definitely a bad comparrison there. I can't see how EA buying out Take Two would have helped anyone in this economy, especially considering the potential number of job cuts due to redundant departments.
So, yeah. Go Take Two!
Re: Wall Street Journal Compares Crooked Ill Guv's Mistakes to
EA generally HAD more financial stability back then. Take Two is not going to have a good year in 2009 because nothing is comming out for them and their going to report a net loss with the lack of grand thefts and Elder Scrolls.
It's probebly going to dip under 8$ a share under these circumstances.
Re: Wall Street Journal Compares Crooked Ill Guv's Mistakes to
Big problem with Wall Street: failure to foresee consequences. It's just one of the many problems facing the economy. These guys never looked at the big picture. They trashed T2 for turning down the deal, just as EA laid off 500 employees. And they say sticking with EA was a better idea?
When people don't realize the consequences of their actions, now THAT'S narrow-minded!
Re: Wall Street Journal Compares Crooked Ill Guv's Mistakes to
I agree with EZK. I don't think Take-Two was trying to drive up the purchase price. It really, truly looked to me like it just didn't want to be bought. At least not by EA.
Andrew Eisen
Re: Wall Street Journal Compares Crooked Ill Guv's Mistakes to
So T2 not wanting to be bought out is now considered toying with EA? So if the hot chick who keeps telling the nasty fat guy to leave her alone really just playing "hard to get"?
E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
MySpace Page: http://www.myspace.com/okceca
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E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Re: Wall Street Journal Compares Crooked Ill Guv's Mistakes to
Yeah, you're telling me! This guy's an idiot. EA was toying with T2: everytime T2 said, "We don't want to be bought," EA extended their deadline. They should have realized T2 DIDN'T WANT THEM!
The analogy's okay, but compare the governor to EA, not T2.
Why does every financial critic think T2's resistance to EA's tyranny was a bad idea? (Don't answer that)
Re: Wall Street Journal Compares Crooked Ill Guv's Mistakes to
'So if the hot chick who keeps telling the nasty fat guy to leave her alone really just playing "hard to get"?'
This is The Wall Street Journal we're talking about, so their answer is most likely yes.
Re: Wall Street Journal Compares Crooked Ill Guv's Mistakes to
Why do I feel a JT post coming on this article...
Re: Wall Street Journal Compares Crooked Ill Guv's Mistakes to
I think he has better things to do, like he should be PROVIDING FOR HIS FAMILY(hint, hint), instead of whining on a blog while his wife pays $50,000 for his mistakes.
Re: Wall Street Journal Compares Crooked Ill Guv's Mistakes to
This whole thing has me surprised, well... at how low this all went. Remind me never to try to debate this in Deviantart - I've got called naive, and stupid so many times... ugh.
Anyway, this is really a horrible day but I have heard that he also vetoed a bill that would've made it easier to catch corrupt governers like him. I had heard Obama had personally called other senators in the state to convince them to try to overturn the veto which gave the feds a heads up that maybe this governer didn't have the best intentions.
Amy Levandoski