Video game publisher SouthPeak Interactive announced late yesterday that former Take-Two CEO Paul Eibeler (left) is joining its board of directors.
Judging from the language of its press release, SouthPeak appears to regard the addition of Eibeler, named Worst CEO of 2005 by MarketWatch, as good news:
“As one of the most respected executives in the interactive games industry, we welcome Paul to the Board of Directors,” said Terry Phillips, Chairman of SouthPeak. “His depth of experience will certainly be an asset to SouthPeak growth as a major publisher.”
Paul Eibeler is best known for his leadership at Take-Two Interactive...
Eibeler is indeed best known for his days at Take-Two. It was under his watch that the Hot Coffee scandal rocked the video game industry, with the Grand Theft Auto publisher inexcusably blaming the now well-known sex scenes on the GTA mod community before ultimately 'fessing up that it was original content.
Eibeler's reign was also plagued by securities investigations which led to charges against several past employees (although not against Eibeler). The former CEO was ousted by a 2007 shareholder revolt led by current T2 chairman Strauss Zelnick. Eibeler exited with a $2.5 million golden parachute.
Comments
Re: SouthPeak Proud to Have Former "Worst CEO of Year" Join ...
Heh, I really don't think Southpeak cares who they have. They are all about crapware, they can pretty much only go up.
Re: SouthPeak Proud to Have Former "Worst CEO of Year" Join ...
Hmm, i was still under the information that the Hot Coffee Mod WAS user created content.
Either way, it required user created content to unlock, or a modchip/homebrew patch to unlock, right?
Re: SouthPeak Proud to Have Former "Worst CEO of Year" Join ...
Well ,they better be ready for nightmarish harassment once a certain person finds out about this.
Re: SouthPeak Proud to Have Former "Worst CEO of Year" Join ...
Regardless of Eibeler's past, SouthPeak has nowhere to go but up or out. The worst he could do would be to accelerate the inevitable.
Re: SouthPeak Proud to Have Former "Worst CEO of Year" Join ...
SouthPeak is largely a shovelware publisher who has been trying (and failing) to expand into bigger budget products. I imagine Eibeler has been unemployed since his time at Take-Two and has probably burned through most of his undeserved parachute payment so he's probably looking for work now. And to be able to say they have Take-Two's former CEO is a big deal to a small player like SouthPeak. I didn't see them lasting more than a couple of years anyway but with him as an adviser, I'm sure they'll be dead even sooner now. Granted, he was overseeing Take-Two at a time when they were getting slammed around because of Ryan Brant & Co.'s crooked dealing but still, the main isn't capable of running a bath, let alone a large company.
Parallax Abstraction
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
blog.digital-lifeline.ca
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada