Jamdat Investor Sues EA

As a follow-up to the announcement that Jamdat was being purchased by powerhouse Electronic Arts, Gamespot has the news that a Jamdat investor is suing to stop the business deal. From the article: "While Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter said EA 'bought Jamdat for a fair price if they intend to get big,' some questioned the premium paid to become an instant player in the growing mobile market. Piper Jaffray's Anthony Gikas said the $680 million figure was actually $200 million too high. Even so, Gikas favored EA's purchase in a note to investors, telling them, 'don't sweat the small stuff.'"

I Wonder

[thebdj]

Does the person actually have a viable case here? The prices of Jamdat's stock did go up after the sale announcement to nearly the price per share they were going to pay. I am also wondering if Jamdat was offering themselves up or if EA just came in with an offer at random.

If the latter is true, then he might have a bit more of an argument because it looks like the company saw the dollar signs and took the money and ran. At that point they probably should have started telling some other possibly interested peoples of the offer and see if anyone was going to counter.

If the first is true, then I would imagine that Jamdat fielded a great many offers from different companies and got several figures before settling on EA's. While this does not necessarily mean they accepted the highest offer, it does mean they attempted to find out how much the company was worth to other individuals and not just blindingly accepting EA's offer.

Re:I Wonder

[Threni]

> At that point they probably should have started telling some other possibly interested peoples
> of the offer and see if anyone was going to counter.

Anyone can offer to buy the company. Anyone can mount a hostile takeover against the wishes of management and shareholders.

And what's a "fair price"? It's impossible to put an accurate price on a company - there are too many variables, and the market is changing all the time. This case won't succeed.

Re:I Wonder

[Red Flayer]

"Does the person actually have a viable case here? The prices of Jamdat's stock did go up after the sale announcement to nearly the price per share they were going to pay."

That was because of the announcement. Of course people would buy for under EA's price, when they know they are going to be able to sell at EA's price.

This happens every time a company announces they are buying another company. The price on outstanding shares of the company being bought rises to about the level of the buy announceme

Frontpage Material

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

This is ./ frontpage material. The near complete lack of comments shows just how little the average games section frequenter actually cares about mergers and hostile takeovers. It would be nice if there was a way of moving this to the YRO section at the very least.

I mean, this story is far more industry and legal based than it is about games.

Re:Frontpage Material

[Lehk228]

it is also entirely unrelated to rights online.

Re:Frontpage Material

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

it is also entirely unrelated to rights online.

Investors sueing to stop a takeover of a tech company. Slashdot doesn't have a legal section, but the YRO section is the proper home for a story of this kind. The games section is not, depite the fact that it involves two game industry companies.

Re:Frontpage Material

[Lehk228]

it barely belongs on slashdot at all, however the closest fit would be the games section, as the effects of the merger and lawsuit would be relevant to some gamers

Muja Muja!

[Anonymous Coward]

EA annouces merger with GNAA!