It's the second day of E3, and Take-Two is making ready to present the last of the major publisher press conferences.

We expect to at least hear more about Gearbox's post-apocalyptic shooter Borderlands, and some details on what Rockstar is up to with Grand Theft Auto 4 DLC. News on what Ken Levine and the 2K Boston crew is doing would be a surprise, as would anything related to BioShock 2. Read more »

UK-based Venom Games may face layoffs or outright closure following an evaluation by parent company Take-Two Interactive, according to Kotaku.

"We are assessing the role of Venom Games in Take-Two's overall global studio system and are in a consultation with the employees of Venom in relation to possible redundancies at the studio," Take-Two said in a statement. "No final decision will be made until after the consultation with employees." Read more »

Just 2,676 people stepped forward to file claims in the "Hot Coffee" class action lawsuit against Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PC, PS2, Xbox) developer Rockstar Games, amounting to a payout of less than $30,000, according to the New York Times.

Per the terms of the settlement, customers offended by the so-called "Hot Coffee" content in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas—essentially amounting to a sex minigame accessible only by altering the game's code—could submit compensatory claims of $5 to $35 each, or a revised edition of the title stripped of the offending code. Read more »

For the fourth time, mega-publisher Electronic Arts has extended its hostile takeover bid of rival publisher Take-Two Interactive Software. Take-Two shareholders now have until July 18 to consider EA's unchanged offer of $25.74 per share.

EA cited the ongoing FTC review process of the proposed merger as the impetus behind the latest extension. Take-Two owns numerous popular properties, including Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, Sid Meier's Civilization, and BioShock. Read more »

Publisher Take-Two is experimenting with different ways to incorporate downloadable and pay-to-play content into its franchises, company chief Strauss Zelnick revealed at a New York consumer conference.

According to Kotaku, Zelnick voiced concern over the practice of stripping content from a game to be later sold as DLC—something which has brought a fair amount of controversy to competing publisher Electronic Arts. Read more »

Several analysts have suggested that publisher Ubisoft may be a possible suitor for Take-Two as the company fields buyout and merger proposals.

According to a Forbes report, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick said in a quarterly earnings call last week that the company "had and continues to have formal discussions with interested parties," but did not specify further who the parties might be. Read more »

The recently announced BioShock film is more likely to release alongside the third entry in the game series than the second, according to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick.

"It's more likely that [the BioShock movie] would be released coincidentally with BioShock 3," Zelnick said in an investors conference call, as reported by Kotaku. Read more »

Grand Theft Auto IV publisher Take-Two spent millions to defend against the recent hostile takeover attempt by rival publisher Electronic Arts.

The news comes out of Take-Two's second quarter financial statement, which noted it had spent "$5.3 million in professional fees and legal expenses, with the majority related to Electronic Arts' unsolicited tender offer." Read more »

Mega-publisher Electronic Arts revealed today that it has secured up to $1 billion in financing for a possible purchase of Take-Two Interactive Software, should it acquire the company by January 9, 2009.

The total sum comes from agreements with multiple banks, including Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc., Morgan Stanley Bank, BNP Paribas, BNP Paribas Securities Corp., The Bank of Nova Scotia and KeyBank National Association. Read more »

Take-Two Interactive today announced that Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 4 has done a whopping $500 million in sales since the game's release last week. Some 6 million copies of the game have been sold worldwide, 3.6 million of those coming in just the first day. Although the numbers exceed industry predictions, Take-Two was confident about selling six million copies before launch.

The news should help Take-Two in its efforts to thwart Electronic Arts' current takeover bid. EA's offer has been for $26 per share, while Take-Two's stock closed Tuesday at $26.35 and should go even higher on this news.

Following the Chicago Transit Authority's decision to stop carrying advertisements for Grand Theft Auto IV, publisher Take-Two Interactive has sued the CTA.

In the suit, Take-Two claims the CTA's unexplained removal of the ads violates its free speech and contractual rights. Reuters reports the company is seeking a settlement of at least $300,000 along with the reinstatement of the materials. Read more »

Take-Two's SEC filings revealed that a shareholder filed a class action complaint against the company for its response to a takeover bid by publisher Electronic Arts, Kotaku reports.

The suit, filed by Micheal Maulano on April 11, alleges that Take Two's responses to EA's buyout bid contained "misleading and incomplete" information, and that Take-Two's tactics constitute a breach of fiduciary duty. Read more »

Following a rejection of its first bid, Electronic Arts made another move to acquire Take-Two this morning, offering $26 per share in cash directly to the company's shareholders. As of this writing, Nasdaq lists Take-Two's current stock price at $25.41 per share.

Take-Two--the owner of such beloved properties as Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, and BioShock--is now urging its shareholders not to consider the offer until it has made an official recommendation. Read more »

It seems that Electronic Arts isn't the only company interested in acquiring Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive.

According to an SEC filing made by Take-Two, the company has received multiple "informal indications of interest in a business combination" since EA failed to acquire the company.

Last Sunday, EA went public with an unsolicited offer to acquire Take-Two for $2 billion. Take-Two rejected the proposal almost immediately, calling the large sum "insufficient." Rival publisher Activision spoke out a few days later, claiming that it had no plans to buy the company. Read more »

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said that Take-Two did not meet his company's criteria for a viable acquisition, GamesIndustry reports.

"We've said that we need a history of profitability, good management, the proprietary technology for a franchise, history of multimillion unit sellers," said Kotick yesterday at the Goldman Sachs Technology Investment Symposium. "Take-Two didnÂ’t fulfill those requirements. Maybe it does over the long-term for EA, but it doesn't for us." Read more »