Investing.com — Take-Two Interactive Software Inc (NASDAQ:) late Wednesday signed a deal with Sweden's Embracer Group AB (ST:) to acquire US game developer Gearbox Entertainment for $460 million. It was announced that.
Take-Two will fund the deal entirely through newly issued shares, the number of which will be calculated based on the five-day average stock price prior to the closing date, the video game publisher said in a press release.
Gearbox, best known for its Borderlands series, will operate as a studio within Take-Two and will continue to be led by founder and CEO Randy Pitchford and his management team.
Take-Two, which owns the wildly popular Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series through its subsidiary Rockstar, said it and Gearbox are “actively developing” the next installment in the Borderlands series. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of Take-Two's fiscal year 2025.
Borderlands has a total of three main titles and several spin-off series, and is published through Take-Two's 2K unit. The series is Gearbox's most successful series, selling nearly 80 million copies.
A film adaptation of the series is also in development by Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE:) and is scheduled for release in August 2024.
Take-Two's acquisition of Gearbox further strengthens the video game publisher's stable of popular franchises, including BioShock, Red Dead, WWE, and the NBA 2K series.
But for Take-Two, the main focus is on the release of GTA 6, scheduled for 2025. The game is the long-awaited sequel to GTA 5, one of his best-selling video games of all time, and has been a significant source of revenue for Take-Two for over a decade.