TTWO sold

I sold the other half of my TTWO today. It sold at 13.35.

TTWO sold

I sold half of my TTWO holdings today. It was still a profit at this point, but everything is suspect in this market. It sold at 13.29.

Funny TTWO/ERTS article

I got a good laugh out of this article (Electronic Arts Can't Be This Stupid?!) and agree with it 100%. I think this deal could be the worst thing that could happen to Take-Two if it goes through.

EA, Take-Two

I really like this article on why Take-Two is so valuable and why EA shouldn't get them for so cheap.

Your Money's No Good Hear, EA

I especially like the part at the end where someone finally started talking about the Activision(ATVI), Blizzard merger.

My account is sitting at an all time (post .com bust) high and feels like it is strong. Yesterday ATVI dropped a bunch, but a lot of my other holdings went up. Today a bunch of those holdings are down and ATVI is back up 3%. Both days the account has grown and I'm sitting at +7.2% for the year. I really don't like when it goes up as quickly as it has since it always means it will probably fall back some, but in this case I'm liking what I see. ATVI is sitting at 27% of my account and I'm really thinking about doing a small amount of profit taking, but I said I would wait until it reached 30% and take it back to 25%. Decisions, Decisions...

TTWO/GTA4 - Video games don't create killers - Harvard study

A number of people have expressed concern with my own promotion of GTA4 (Grand Theft Auto 4) and investment in TTWO. Every time I have heard this it has been from someone outside the game industry and has never actually played the game. At a basic level it is just like the movie "The Godfather", except you are playing one of the characters, not just watching them. The Godfather in shows up on the Time magazine top 100 movies of all time and makes their top 5 list since it shares the image banner with Psycho, E.T, Laurence of Arabia, and It's a wonderful life.

This article that addresses the topic.

Video games don't create killers, new book/harvard study says

The book is called Grand Theft Childhood.

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from the article:

Many video game fans have embraced the pair as champions of the industry, a label that makes them uncomfortable.

"We're not comfortable doing pro and con. We've been asked to do the pro-game side in debates, and I don't consider myself a pro-game person. Video games are a medium," Olson said.

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The researchers also try to place video games in a larger context of popular culture. The anxiety many parents voice over video games largely mirrors the concerns raised when movies, comic books and television became popular.

"One thing I like about their approach is that they've tried to historicize the whole concept of a media controversy and that we've seen this before," said Ian Bogost, a professor at Georgia Tech known for his studies on video games.

The book urges a common-sense approach that takes stock of the entire range of a child's behavior. Frequent fighting, bad grades, and obsessive gaming can be signs for trouble.

EIX (Edison) on Buffet watch

Looks like Warren Buffett may follow me again. The last time he did this was on TTWO and that did really well for me (and him).

5 Stocks on Buffett Watch

Speaking of EIX, I do have one more purchase to make and I was considering making it today since it did go up (finally). I went to make the purchase and it looks like the USG purchase took most of the cash reserves and I'm now fully invested. I'll have to sell something to buy something and currently I'm happy with all the positions. Looks like I'm on the wait and see for a while (hopefully).

TTWO - GTA4 tops $500 million in first week sales

That's what I've been talking about for months when you could still buy TTWO at 13.

"Grand Theft Auto" first week sales top $500 million.

The price held steady because people already expected this to be huge, but I don't think anyone expected this to be that huge. The previous record for an entertainment release was Pirates of the Carribean which brought in around $400 million. That beats the previous record by 25%. I don't think the entertainment industry has figured this stuff out yet, but gaming is huge. Looking at the $2 billion dollar offer from EA to buy TTWO last month I start to wonder what people would think of a $2 billion dollar offer for Universal Pictures? I know they are much more diversified than TTWO or EA, but do the math and it doesn't take long to figure out that TTWO is going to be worth a lot more than it currently is.

TTWO articles

I saw two great articles on Take-Two (TTWO) today.

The Cheapest Stocks I know

A tale of two botched buyouts

Both reiterate my BUY rating on TTWO. I just hope the EA (ERTS) takeover doesn't happen since as I've probably said, GTA4 revenue will probably be severly diluted on an EA balance sheet and as an investor I want what is best for my investment. If EA does somehow complete the buyout I'll probably have to sell since I don't believe in EA management any longer. It will be time to find another up and comer in the game industry.