EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading Charges

December 18, 2008 -

According to the Dow-Jones Newswire, federal investigators charged four men with today insider stock trading. One of the transactions named in the indictments was EA's bid to acquire T2 earlier this year.

No one from either Take-Two Interactive or Electronic Arts has been charged and there is no indication that the publishers had any inkling of the illegal stock trades. If government regulators are correct, however, information leaks from the Brunswick Group, a P.R. firm working on behalf of Take-Two, contributed to the crime. From the Dow-Jones report:

Four people were charged criminally Thursday in an insider trading scheme involving information about mergers or stock buybacks obtained from a Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. broker's wife who worked at communications firm Brunswick Group LLC...

According to court documents, they were among a group of clients and friends tipped by Matthew C. Devlin, a Lehman Brothers broker, about 12 planned deals before their public announcements between 2005 and 2008...

Devlin allegedly obtained the information from his wife, who worked at communications firm Brunswick Group, according to court filings. The deals included... Electronic Arts Inc.'s (ERTS) hostile bid earlier this year for Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (TTWO)...

Devlin has been charged criminally and in the SEC case... [other defendants]... referred to Devlin or his wife as the "golden goose," according to court documents.

The Guardian reports that there is no suggestion that Devlin's wife, Nina, a partner at Brunswick, knew of her husband's alleged stock market manipulations.

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Comments

Re: EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading

Submitted by sortableturnip on Fri, 12/19/2008 - 11:30.

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Re: EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading

Submitted by sortableturnip on Fri, 12/19/2008 - 12:05.

I like your amended version just as well, EZK ;)

Sortableturnip's Law: As an online discussion of video game violence grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Jack Thompson approaches 1

Re: EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading

Submitted by Shadow D. Darkman on Fri, 12/19/2008 - 12:05.

FULL OF WIN.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Game on, brothers and sisters." -Leet Gamer Jargon

-----------------------------

"A Chrono Trigger is anything that unleashes its will or desire to change history!" -Gaspar

Re: EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading

Submitted by DavCube on Fri, 12/19/2008 - 14:05.

Uh-oh, Shadow. You posted a humorous picture to relate to the matter at hand. Devirous might come and insult people.

What EVER shall we do???

Re: EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading

Submitted by HarmlessBunny on Fri, 12/19/2008 - 14:13.

Pretend he does not exist? :)

Re: EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading

Submitted by Shadow D. Darkman on Fri, 12/19/2008 - 17:29.

Excellent option. Have a cookie.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Game on, brothers and sisters." -Leet Gamer Jargon

-----------------------------

"A Chrono Trigger is anything that unleashes its will or desire to change history!" -Gaspar

Re: EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading

Submitted by HarmlessBunny on Fri, 12/19/2008 - 23:44.

mmmm cookie! nom nom nom nom nom

Re: EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading

Submitted by Keddren on Fri, 12/19/2008 - 11:29.

Keep dreaming, sparky

Re: EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading

Submitted by strausszelnick on Fri, 12/19/2008 - 07:29.

By the way, the frozen turkey in the recent Mythbusters "Best of" show is the head of former T2 Chairman Paul Eibler. Somebody finally found a use for Paul Eibler.

Re: EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading

Submitted by hellfire7885 on Fri, 12/19/2008 - 09:52.

Next time you have a thought, just let it go.

ANd hey, I hear Buster needs a stand-in, sign up, now.

Re: EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading

Submitted by Master_E on Fri, 12/19/2008 - 09:22.

When shall they find a use for you?

Re: EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading

Submitted by strausszelnick on Fri, 12/19/2008 - 07:27.

Wow, more SEC problems related to Take-Two. What a freaking surprise.

Re: EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading

Submitted by Cheater87 on Thu, 12/18/2008 - 21:11.

How much money will EA lose because of this?

Re: EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading

Submitted by Neeneko on Fri, 12/19/2008 - 12:46.

Probably none.

While it was EA's stock information that was being leaked, neither EA nor T2 had anything to do with the insider trading. This is purely a case of a middle man taking advantage of some knowledge that they were not supposed to.

Re: EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading

Submitted by insanejedi on Thu, 12/18/2008 - 21:18.

Not a lot really. TTWO's market cap is only about 700 million while EA sits on a hefty 5 billion.

If you think about it, the Bioware and Pandemic buyout was actually more than the market value of TTWO, sitting at 860 million, so TTWO is actually a steal for anyone looking to buy it.

Re: EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading

Submitted by Krono on Fri, 12/19/2008 - 01:48.

so TTWO is actually a steal for anyone looking to buy it.

Assuming that they're willing to be bought. If they aren't, then the price fast approaches unreasonable as EA found out.

-Gray17

Re: EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading

Submitted by insanejedi on Fri, 12/19/2008 - 11:13.

Well you can just buy up all the stocks if you wanted to (51%) for only about 350 million and do a corperate takeover, but EA does't want that to happen since (by experience) they probebly know that it will make everyone there unhappy and leave.

Re: EA's Bid to Buy T2 Figures in Wall Street Insider Trading

Submitted by sqlrob on Fri, 12/19/2008 - 11:59.

You can't take the current stock price and multiply by the number of shares needed. Trying to buy up that much will trigger a price increase.

Shout box

Technogeek: If the developer were male there wouldn't have been a "conversation" in the first place.10/19/2014 - 2:27am

Monte: trolls are just at their absolute worst when it comes to women and feminist. You could bet good money that if the developer were male the trolls would be silent and the conversation would actually focus on the journalism.10/18/2014 - 9:18pm

Monte: Papa: Not the first time we've had a journalism scandals before, but the harassment never got close to this level; the difference with this scandal is that feminists are involved. Without the feminist angle, their would be A LOT less harrassment10/18/2014 - 9:15pm

Papa Midnight: Monte: That's honestly rather short-sighted. As has been proven with other persons who have been targeted, if it wasn't Quinn, it would be someone else.10/18/2014 - 6:26pm

Avalongod: I think that's part of what gives an esoteric news story like this real life...it taps into a larger narrative about misogyny in society outside of games.10/18/2014 - 3:29pm

Avalongod: @Monte, well the trolls made death threats that came to police (and media attention). I think this is tapping into a larger issue outside of games about how women are treated in society (like all the "real rape" stuff during the last election)10/18/2014 - 3:28pm

Wonderkarp: Zippy : Havent tried the PS4 controller. might later.10/18/2014 - 2:37pm

Monte: Seirously, If Quinn was not involved and GG was instead about something like the Mordor Marketing contracts, the trolling would have never grown so vile and disgusting. There have been plenty of movements in the past that never sufferred from behavior..10/18/2014 - 1:57pm

Monte: We have seen scandel's before but the trolling has never been as vile as what we see with GG. Trolls usually have such a tiny voice you can barely notice them, but its like moths to a flame whenever femistist are involved.10/18/2014 - 1:53pm

ZippyDSMlee: Wonderkarp: You might be able to if you had a PS4 controller.10/18/2014 - 1:00pm

MaskedPixelante: http://store.steampowered.com/app/327940/ Night Dive starts charging for freeware.10/18/2014 - 12:21pm

Matthew Wilson: the sad thing is there are trolls on both sides of this. people need to stop acting like their side is so pure.10/18/2014 - 12:19pm

MechaTama31: So, only speak out on a scandal that hasn't attracted trolls? I wouldn't hold my breath...10/18/2014 - 10:49am

Monte: I feel like GG just needs to die. The movement is FAR to tainted by hatred and BS for it to be useful for any conversation. Let GG die, and then rally behind the NEXT gaming journalism scandal, and start the conversation fresh.10/18/2014 - 10:33am

quiknkold: and we dont have a Dovakin to call a cease fire10/17/2014 - 7:37pm

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quiknkold: I thought it was a good article. Jeff is right. I feel like GamerGate did destroy its message. I am for Ethics in game journalism, but man. so much hate. and its on both sides. I've seen some awful stuff spewed on twitter. Its a big reason why I exited..10/17/2014 - 7:34pm

Matthew Wilson: while he focused on gg, he did call out both sides crap.10/17/2014 - 7:18pm

Papa Midnight: That was a damn good read offered by Jeff Gertsmann.10/17/2014 - 7:17pm

Matthew Wilson: http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/letter-from-the-editor-10-17-2014/1100-5049/ deferentially a nice write up.10/17/2014 - 6:44pm

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