SCi Acquires 20% Of Eidos Shares

As part of its bid to acquire Eidos Interactive, British publisher SCi has acquired almost 20 percent of the company’s stock from investment firm Schroder. Schroder Investment Management accepted the offer on behalf of its shareholders – with a formal letter of acceptance from 14.99 percent and a letter of intent from the further 4.79 percent. Under the terms of the offer, Schroder will give one share of SCi stock in return for every six shares of Eidos stock it currently holds - stock which is currently valued at around 53 pence ($0.99). After the acquisition bid from venture capital firm Elevation Partners, which has managing partners including U2’s Bono and ex-EA president John Riccitiello, appeared to be a done deal earlier in the week, SCi’s counter-offer now seems significantly more likely, since the company has the de facto support of 20 percent of Eidos’ shareholders. The possible saving grace for Elevation Partners seems to be that the company’s offer is for cash, rather than stock. There may also be greater support from Eidos’ existing management, since SCi has stated that it would instigate a more thorough shake-up of the existing structure than Elevation Partners, likely including lay-offs if marketing and publishing jobs from the two companies are integrated. With the UK Easter holidays about to begin, the matter will not now be resolved until Tuesday at the earliest and, if previous chapters in Eidos’ ongoing search for a buyer are anything to go by, there will likely be a few more twists and turns before the matter is resolved for good.