Icahn Invests in Take-Two
SAN FRANCISCO -- Activist investor Carl Icahn has returned to
Take-Two
(TTWO) - Get Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. Report
, the video games publisher behind the blockbuster
Grand Theft Auto
franchise.
Icahn, who acquired a stake in Take-Two last year before selling it earlier this year, has taken a small position in the company again.
According to an
SEC
filing by Icahn's money-management firm, Icahn Capital Management, Icahn owned 462,037 shares of Take-Two at the end of the third quarter. At Wednesday's closing price of $15.31, the stake, which was accumulated between July 1 and Sept. 30, would be worth nearly $7 million, or 0.6% of the company's outstanding shares.
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"For someone like Carl Icahn, this is not a big investment," says Ben Silverman, director of research for InsiderScore, which tracks insider and institutional trading. "But it gives us an idea of where he might be building up his new positions in."
Icahn is a familiar name for Take-Two. In August 2006, an SEC filing revealed that he had acquired more than 800,000 shares of Take-Two, then valued at about $8.6 million. The stake gave Icahn control of about 1.1% of the company.
Icahn sold his stake in the company shortly before a
shake-up at Take-Two that led to the resignation of then-CEO Paul Eibler, CFO Karl Winters and the company's board of directors.
In August, Take-Two's new management cut its outlook for the fiscal year and said it will
push back the release of its much-anticipated
Grand Theft Auto IV
game from the fourth quarter to fiscal 2008. Analysts saw the delay of
Grand Theft Auto IV
as a huge blow to the company's holiday season sales this year.
Take-Two's stock is down 13.3% since the beginning of the year.
