Take Two Chairman: Expanding, Not Selling, Company

Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick told a Reuters Media Summit that he was interested in expanding, not selling, the publisher of the Grand Theft Auto series.

"I'm much more interested in growing the business than in selling it, to be clear," said Zelnick. "I would say for the next five to seven years this is a terrific time to be in the videogame business."

Speculation abounded that a management cleanup effort Zelnick recently headed was a prelude to a sale.

The CEO sounded a similarly optimistic note in other comments, saying the videogame business is "a growth business" and that recent divestitures left the company in a "very efficient" state.

Zelnick said he was interested in developing new IPs rather than ports from other publishers or media.

He also seemed very confident of GTA IV's impact, despite its delayed release.

"I believe this release, Grand Theft Auto IV, is going to be vastly better than those expectations - vastly better - and that's hard to do when expectations are so high," he said.

Source: Reuters