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Take-Two's Paul Eibler named worst CEO of 2005

MarketWatch editor Herb Greenberg pins blame for poor earnings, lambastes executive's managerial style.

Take-Two Interactive's rough year got a little rougher this week, when esteemed financial-news Web site MarketWatch.com singled it out for a rather dubious achievement. In a strongly worded column, editor Herb Greenberg named the publisher's top executive, Paul Eibler, as "Worst CEO of the Year."

"[Eibeler] has done such a poor job getting his arms around the company that Take-Two has missed its own earnings guidance for multiple quarters," said Greenberg. "So far this year it has sliced earnings guidance by more than 60 percent to a range of 53 cents to 56 cents a share." Predictably, Greenberg cited the "Hot Coffee" scandal that got Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas pulled from store shelves for several months and "setbacks on the rollouts of newer games"--presumably the delay of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion until 2006.

29 Comments

  • skitzocyko

    Posted Feb 24, 2006 6:16 am GMT

    BUYOUT!!

  • Inquisitor928

    Posted Jan 3, 2006 3:02 pm GMT

    Eibler got PWND! anyway, I think the important thing here is the games at risk. Ovlivion may very well be one of the greatest games to look our for this year, so I hope this wont have any effect on the game whatsoever. There are slow points in the industry when your not releasing any new titles and you have just been through a major legal scandal.

  • Destroyeron13

    Posted Dec 17, 2005 4:37 pm GMT

    Worst CEO is a bit of a stretch. Worst lawyer = Jack Thompson.

  • Autolycus

    Posted Dec 9, 2005 6:35 am GMT

    You can do just as many good things in GTA as you can Negative. Also sex is a part of life why does America hide it so much. Do you idiots understand that if you tell people NOT to do something(like have sex) they are more likely to actually HAVE IT!?

    The problem with CEO's is that they are greedy. They lose track of where they came from and why they are in the video game business. I would still purchase a game from TAKE 2 over EA any day of the week. EA just pushes out crappy games geared towards th URBAN/BLACK community. Its all flash/image and no actual gaming.

    I am pretty sure though, that the TITLE is for software/gaming only.

  • fuzzynutz_usa

    Posted Dec 8, 2005 1:53 pm GMT

    This is a joke, like another guy said, all you bozo's who seem to have a problem with the HOT COFFEE thing are complete and utter morons. YOU KILL PEOPLE IN THIS GAME!!! HELLO, MCFLY, ANYONE THERE?!? Wow, I'm sorry I guess having little Johnny accidently see some **** bouncing is so much worse than capping a cop or little old lady.

    Not to mention, who the hell thinks the CEO even knew about the goddamn code in the first place? UGH. Dumb*****.

  • wheezal

    Posted Dec 8, 2005 12:30 pm GMT

    worst CEO in gaming? or worst CEO in all of business?

    cuz surely someone other then a video games producer can do far worse.

    if not, if the worst CEO in all of business is in charge of a software company...then that actually good news. means things aint so bad

  • DJshakes

    Posted Dec 8, 2005 11:04 am GMT

    oooooooooooooooooo! snap he got told

  • Ranger_x8b

    Posted Dec 8, 2005 8:22 am GMT

    Comic Book Guy commeting to Herb Greenberg: "Worst editor ever!"

  • JimRune

    Posted Dec 8, 2005 8:22 am GMT

    Worst CEO by **** That's horrible, they now have a title by **** That's like me kicking a little kid in the face: Funny.

    On a side note, those *'s are the name of the company that gave the title to Paul Eibler. Apparently GameSpot doesn't like MW!

  • RexxKarz

    Posted Dec 8, 2005 5:00 am GMT

    Can this guy be any worse than the clown that ran SIERRA ten years ago and ran the damn thing into the ground???

  • Cool-AN

    Posted Dec 8, 2005 4:55 am GMT

    I can't really see how he can be blamed for this, his company has been expanding rapidly on the PC market with games like Civilization 4 and buying Firaxis Game. Not to speak of all the money they must have wasted on the GTA: SA "Hot Coffe" case.

    All in all Take-Two has been expanding and suffered some loses. Other companies who haven't really expended as much as Take-Two has have also suffered loses, however I haven't heard any body criiticize their CEO's. Then again I may be wrong and he is bad but I do have my doubts about it.

    Edit: Also he probably didn't have any thing to do with the Hot Coffe thing, it was Rockstar that made the game and put the code in, not Take-Two.

  • schu

    Posted Dec 8, 2005 1:22 am GMT

    I find it hard to understand how the hot coffee mod was so terrible when you can already sleep with and murder prostitutes..all you who are complaining about the hot coffee mod seem to ignore the whole point of the game..to do whatever you want..

  • Opstinger

    Posted Dec 8, 2005 12:29 am GMT

    If he was the jerk responsible for the "hot-coffee" ordeal, then he deserves all the dubious awards he can swallow. You simply don't let stupid stuff like that slip. Give the media and politicians an opening to attack an otherwise harmless industry for mere publicity and moral bigotry, and they'll sure as heck take it. The videogame industry has to be more careful now than ever, and Greenberg failed to take that into consideration.

  • a_tru_christian

    Posted Dec 8, 2005 12:12 am GMT

    I'll still take 'Take-two' over EA any day.

  • wytefang

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 10:50 pm GMT

    Not to mention that GTA sucks pretty hard too, imho...just a lame franchise. Other than the open-world idea (which has been done in other games before GTA) what's even remotely fun about it? Basically, like Spector said, it's an urban thuggery simulator. Yawn.

    On topic - if your'e a poor CEO, it might be time to step aside for the good of the company and learn how to be a better CEO before trying it again.

  • Perseid

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 9:58 pm GMT

    This doesn't surprise me. Remember, Take-Two is the company that foisted those 10 dollar PS1 games on us, like Spec-Ops.

    They've always been a cut-rate publisher, and if it weren't for GTA, I doubt they'd even exist right now.

  • 1valiantknight

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 8:52 pm GMT

    No no no! The Hot Coffee incident was not Take Two's fault at all! I work in the gaming industry, you have to understand that there is a lot of hidden code in every single game out there. They realized that the sex mini game was a bad idea, thats why they hid the code. To delete the code completely would have set the release date back possible months. You can't just remove sections of games like editing a movie, it doesn't work like that. Removing one part of a game can cause problems though the entire thing. Take Two is not to blame, people like Jack Thompson need to be, shall we say removed from this world.

  • cypher50

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 8:30 pm GMT

    kainenable, the Phantom wasn't thought of as a great marketing idea in the first place and I doubt that people were thinking of Infinium Labs as a realistic player in the video game industry so Market Watch wouldn't focus such a predictably woeful company. Eibeler is being singled out because he is doing a horrible job at a major public company that has several franchises that produce easy profits...

  • MASTERCHIEFUSMA

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 8:15 pm GMT

    Hes trying, gotta give him that

  • Hell3ent

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 7:54 pm GMT

    I agree that development companies are judged a little too harshly by how much they make, and less on what they make. Another problem, imho, is that though a game may look great on paper, by the time that game has gone through a year of developement and testing, the niche it was going for may have come and gone, and that game, wonderful though it may be, will be overlooked...that being said, I think the whole Hot Coffee incident was a royal f-up on Take-Two's part, so it's not really a suprise.

  • deleteduser

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 7:53 pm GMT

    Can you say... owned?

  • xack10

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 7:47 pm GMT

    oh man... worst CEO. how horrible.

  • doomed51

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 7:35 pm GMT

    thats....mean lol i know its business and all but can't he soft tone it or something....damn

  • greatatlantic

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 7:26 pm GMT

    I think part of the problem is the fact companies are judged on a quarterly basis in an industry where you can't always predict when games are going to be done. Or, where games are rushed out to make a quarterly report look good. Publicy traded companies just shouldn't have such a big place in the industry.

  • kainenable

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 6:15 pm GMT

    Worst CEO is a bit harsh I think. Remember the Phantom? At least Take 2 is trying to make something and not just bilk there investors. I think overall Take 2's managment is pretty poor and hurtfull to the industry.

    But worst CEO... that's a bit of a strech.

  • Raven_Lord

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 6:02 pm GMT

    Eh, John Smedley of SOE for teh win

  • jhawk

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 5:33 pm GMT

    Unfortunately, although Eibler might very well deserve it, I'm sure this will make Jack Thompson happy as well.

  • Digital-Devil

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 5:19 pm GMT

    i believe it

  • soulkeeper90

    Posted Dec 7, 2005 5:18 pm GMT

    [This message was deleted at the request of a moderator or administrator]

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