Take-Two Hit With $50M Lawsuit From Former Executive

Robert Alexander, a former board member of publisher Take-Two, has sued the company for $50 million, alleging that Take-Two reneged on an oral contract with Alexander.

It's a complicated story dating back to the 1990s, but GamePolitics sums it up well:

In his suit Alexander claims that he has been in the game biz since he was 16. He says that he built up a distribution company called Jack of All Games which he sold it to Take-Two in 1998. After closing that deal he spent some time as a member of the T2 Board of Directors, leaving in 1999.

In 2003 Alexander formed a new distribution company, Game Ballers, and began negotiating with Ryan Brant and other execs to partner with T2 and Jack of All Games. Although Alexander began working with T2, his deal was never finalized before legal troubles forced Brant to leave the company in March, 2004. When Eibeler assumed the CEO post later in the year, Alexander apparently fell out of favor and alleges that he was not paid what he was owed.

"What he was owed" was staggering: a $240,000 salary with guaranteed 20% raises for three years, a $25,000 monthly expense allowance, a $0.50 royalty on each game passed through his distribution chain, and a large chunk of Take-Two stock.

Take-Two, under new management, refused to comment to GamePolitics on the suit.

Blake's Take: Game distributors are the middlemen between publishers and retailers. That an executive in charge of distribution--getting games from point A to point B--can claim that kind of compensation is mind-boggling.