Take-Two Acquires Barking Dog Studios

Take-Two, the corporate parent of Rockstar Games, acquired Barking Dog for $3 million in cash and 242,450 shares of restricted common stock. Barking Dog was founded in 1998 by Brian Thalken, Peter Grant, Sean Thompson, Christopher Mair, Glenn Barnes and Michael Gyori. It developed the CounterStrike mod CounterStrike Beta5, Sierra's Homeworld: Cataclysm, and Global Operations for Crave/EA. The studio has about fifty developers in three different teams. It is currently working on an upcoming, but unannounced, military-style game for Rockstar, and Treasure Planet: Battle at Procyon, based on Walt Disney Pictures' upcoming animated feature "Treasure Planet," for Disney Interactive. The acquisition brings the number of Rockstar studios to three. The studio located in Oakville, Ontario (formerly known as Rockstar Canada) will now be called Rockstar Toronto. Rockstar also has a studio in Scotland (Rockstar North, formerly called DMA Design).