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SCi's Eidos bid gets big boost

Huge block of shares commits to onetime rival's advances; Elevation Partners' cash offer reportedly on the ropes.

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Reports out of London today indicate that a significant Eidos shareholder has thrown its support behind the SCi offer, weighing the battle for the ailing publisher in its former rival's favor.

Eidos' board of directors has been seeking a buyer for several months. While the first bid came from Silicon Valley-based venture-capital firm Elevation Partners, that $135 million all-cash offer was quickly superseded by a $144 million all-stock bid from rival publisher SCi Games. The past weeks have seen maneuvering in the form of public statements from both SCI and Elevation designed to sway shareholder support.

Today, though, dispatches form the front lines of the bidding war show SCi as prevailing. Reuters reported just hours ago that "shareholders representing 46.7 percent of Eidos' shares have irrevocably committed to accept SCI's offer." That figure is up from 41 percent earlier in the day, says Reuters, adding that Plane Investment Limited added an additional 8 million shares to the SCi offer. According to British securities law, SCi requires only 25 percent of Eidos stock to block Elevation's bid.

In trading on the London exchange today, Eidos shares skidded by nearly 10 percent; SCI shares were down as well, by 6.1 percent.

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