Take-Two shareholders approve new board

While gamers were eagerly anticipating the first trailer for Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto IV at 3 p.m. PDT today, execs at Rockstar's parent company, Take-Two Interactive, were dreading 1 p.m. PDT. The company held its annual stockholder meeting today, and dissident stockholders officially began their quest to take over the company and oust current CEO Paul Eibler.

Anyone who owns at least one share of Take-Two stock was admitted into the meeting, which was held at the Hotel Gansevoort in New York City.

As expected, the dissidents, which include various investment firms with a stake in the company, nominated Benjamin Feder, John J. Moses, Michael Dornemann, Michael J. Sheresky, John F. Levy, and Strauss Zelnick to be considered for the new board of directors. Each nominee would hold office until the company's next financial meeting, according to the representative from Oppenheimer Funds who nominated them.

Shareholders then cast their ballots, the results of which will be announced "as soon as practical."

[UPDATE] Take-Two announced the results of the shareholders' vote, and all six newly nominated board of director candidates were approved. Taking on the role of chairman will be Zelnick, former CEO of BMG Entertainment and Crystal Dynamics. Feder has been named Take-Two's acting CEO.

Grover C. Brown, who was an independent director, was also elected to the board of directors in a meeting following the shareholders meeting, bringing the total number of members of the new board of directors to seven.

Those expecting some sort of flare up at the meeting likely left disappointed. The event went without a hitch and lasted less than 20 minutes. No shareholders chose to participate in the question-and-answer session.

Take-Two's management has suffered a number of high-profile setbacks in recent years. The most notorious misstep was the inclusion of hidden sexually themed minigames in its best-selling game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The company then got into more hot water when it was found that employees had received improperly backdated stock options.

Take-Two stock was up $0.24 to $21.10 on the day, a change of just over 1 percent.