Video game publisher and developer Electronic Arts has offered US$ 2 billion for Take-Two Interactive. Strauss Zelnick, the chairman of the said company, along with the rest of the board has politely declined this offer. At this point, everyone is holding their breath to see what happens next.

Well, almost everyone. Reacting to the recent news, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter has predicted that, in Gamespot's words, EA will be conducting a "hostile" takeover of the company. He pointed out that Take-Two will be joining the EA family one way or another:

By going public, EA is telling you, 'This deal is happening.' The only way you can credibly reject the deal is if there's a better one behind it. I don't see how anyone can afford to pay this much or more for the stock.

There's only one company that can make sense out of an acquisition of Take-Two, and that's EA. For anyone else to buy Take-Two, they'd have to decide either to bloody themselves competing in sports against EA, or shut down the sports business and give up. Either way, there aren't many people who are going to pay a premium for the right to engage with EA or shut down that business.