Take-Two's Boss Is Down, Long Live Take-Two's...

Take-Two's Boss Is Down, Long Live Take-Two's Boss // UPDATE

While most people were busy drooling over the first Grand Theft Auto IV trailer last night, the series' publisher Take-Two was going through some changes... Some BIG changes! For several weeks now, it has been known that a powerful group of shareholders were planning to take down the company's current former CEO, Paul Eibeler, along with most of its board of directors. The "coup" was planned to take place at the annual stockholders' meeting on March 23, however Take-Two made a last desperate attempt to come up with an alternate solution (failing miserably), and postponed it to March 29. Well, March 29 is now behind us, and so is the stockholders' meeting. And, as expected, the company's now-former top management team.

I was initially bored to death while listening to the meeting's webcast, during which the stockholders submitted their votes for the new board of directors. Unfortunately the webcast ended soon afterwards, without announcing the results. But now we finally have them.

So ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome Take-Two Interactive Software's new chairman... mr. Strauss Zelnick! He is also the founding partner of ZelnickMedia, and has previously led the successful execution of several operational turnarounds, including Columbia Music Entertainment of Japan and Time-Life. Prior to founding ZelnickMedia in 2001, Zelnick was president and CEO of BMG Entertainment, president and CEO of Crystal Dynamics, and president and CEO of 20th Century Fox. That's right, this guy's rock solid!

In addition to Strauss Zelnick, the new Take-Two board now includes Ben Feder, Jon J. Moses, Michael Dornemann, Michael James Sheresky and John Levy, as well as Grover C. Brown, who was elected at another meeting last night, immediately after the stockholders' get-together. Other proposals were also put to vote, but we'll end here, with Zelnick's first public statement as the new boss of Take-Two:

"Take-Two has exceptional brands and creative resources, and we are thrilled to be able to work with the many talented people within the company. The new Board plans to put in place strategies designed to revitalize Take-Two, focus on supporting and enhancing its creative output, improve its margins and ensure that the 2007 release pipeline meets expectations. We are here to maximize the value of Take-Two for shareholders, for game consumers, and for the Company's employees."

UPDATE: Forbes has word that in addition to the changes above, the former CEO, Paul Eibeler was replaced by Ben Feder, a partner at ZelnickMedia (since Zelnick himself is "only" the chairman).

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)