Publisher THQ (Drawn To Life) has announced that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has completed its investigation of the company’s stock option grant practices, and will not recommend any action be taken against the company.
THQ originally announced the investigation in August 2006, when it revealed the SEC requested documents from the company relating to stock option grant practices from 1996 to the present.
At the time the SEC opened its investigation, THQ stated it had already begun an internal review of its grant practices voluntarily, following news coverage and analyst reports about the option practices of numerous companies across several different industries.
As an Associated Press report explained at the time, the SEC’s investigation of stock option irregularities particularly focused on the practice of “backdating” stock option grants to time them at share price lows, thus increasing their sale price value.
Both Activision and Take-Two were also investigated as part of this same broader effort on the part of the SEC, but there have been no major ramifications for game companies as of yet.
POSTED: 06.39AM PST, 02/28/08 - Leigh Alexander - LINK
Many people read all over gaming sites that EA has officially offered Take-Two 2 billion dollars for their majority share of the company. While this would be great for shareholders and let me tell you “Go buy stock in Take-Two NOW!” this deal is horrible for gamers.
It is no stranger to anyone that EA has been strugling to keep it’s Video Game Sports Monopoly just where it is - at EA. However over the past few years Take-Two has been creeping up on EA and EA is losing precious ground in areas other than football. The NBA and MLB denied EA petitions for exclusive rights, but was denied because those groups understand that EA does not uphold a high quality of games when exclusives are at hand as gamers saw with Madden 06 and Madden 07 for the XBOX 360. EA blamed new technology, but what it really came down to was a lack of urgency because the competition was simply not there. They new that no matter what they would not need the features to beat out the othere football games because there was none. So we got half made games and gamers got the shaft. The
NFL continued to enjoy shafting gamers by extending EA’s exclusive license to 2012. If you are like myself and want fair competition, you too will write to video game associations and even your senator and let them know how you feel about EA’s pull to gain a monopoly over the Sports game industry.
With GDC just right around the corner, a friend of mine has sent my picture of Akuma rendered from Street Fighter 4.
He says that the popular World Warrior has been confirmed as a playable character in the upcoming highly anticipated title. Street Fighter 4 screens have been leaking out left and right as of late. Let’s just hope Darth Vader ad Yoda don’t make an appearance there.
Look for more information this week as I head to GDC.
Many people can verify such a bold claim as I use to be one of the premier pilots during Battle Field 1942, Desert Combat (The great mod ever created outside Counter-Strike), and Battle Field 2. That is pretty much where my retirement started from the series. While I was not thee top pilot I was one of thee top pilots in clan based warfare and it never once took on an arrogant status of I am the best. I must get onto my point as I am sure you guys reading this really don’t care about my status in Battle Field no matter how good a game it was.
- So finally the year has come to an end. I have to say that this year started off well and ended even better. Those stories are for another day as I post what it was this year that made this year great.
First off is I started this blog. I had no direction in where I was going to go, but I was bound and determined to spread and release video game rumors far and wide. However as the person who contributed most and as a part of the game industry I had to be very careful to not break any longstanding NDA’s and/ or ruin any future employment prospects. My fellow writers who help me on here also came up with the same dilemma. So we decided it would just be a blog about the game industry in general and enjoy what it was we did without divulging major secrets we found out. Still, Diablo 3 is on its way and no one can tell me otherwise. I got it on good account at the Tokyo Game Show from someone high up on the food chain at what is now referred to as Activision-Blizzard. On the other note I doubt anyone will ever see World of Starcraft.
