Sony confirm they are not looking to buy Take-Two

Earlier this week there were rumors that Sony was in advanced board level discussions with Take-Two Interactive regarding the purchase of the company. Sony has now spoken to the press to clarify that these rumours are not true, and that they are not looking to purchase Take-Two Interactive.

Speculation picked up peed because if this deal were to happen it would give Sony first-party exclusivity over a number of franchises that do extremely well. Grand Theft Auto would be just one of the franchises that Sony would gain control of through this purchase, the latest game of which, GTA 5 is still selling well despite being more than 5 years old.

At the time these rumours were making the rounds the supposed original source, Wedbush Securities Analyst Joel Kulina, said that he wasn’t sure why he was being quoted since he hadn’t spoken to anyone regarding the matter. The only possible explanation he could think of was that someone was basing the news on a trading note he had written, which he clarified was unconfirmed market speculation.

The writers of the MarketWatch report that first spoke about this matter later confirmed that they had based their theory around the rise in stock price for Take-Two Interactive on Kulina’s trading note. This seemed like the only logical explanation at the time, considering the company’s stock had risen considerably before the trade day began.

Yuji Nakamura, a Bloomberg Reporter, posted on their Twitter account shortly after the news had broken saying that they had spoken with Sony regarding the matter. They said that while everyone pretty much knew that the news wouldn’t be true, they had received confirmation from Sony that this news was in fact false, and the company was not looking to purchase Take-Two Interactive.

With the rumours making the rounds some press sites speculated on what the purchase would mean for both companies. While a number of jobs could have been at risk, the biggest problem with the purchase would be the fact that the franchises Sony would gain would lower in value if they became PlayStation exclusives. Currently franchises such as Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption sell incredibly well across all platforms, but by reducing their scope to PlayStation gamers only the value of said franchises would greatly diminish.