SouthPeak Appoints Embattled Ex-Take-Two CEO Eibeler To Board

More than two years after shareholders ousted him from the CEO position at Take-Two, SouthPeak Interactive said Monday that Paul Eibeler is now on its board of directors. SouthPeak, the Virginia-based publisher of games including Two Worlds and My Baby, and the upcoming Edge of Twilight, said that it hopes Eibeler will help the company's growth. "As one of the most respected executives in the interactive games industry, we welcome Paul to the board of directors," said SouthPeak chair Terry Phillips. “His depth of experience will certainly be an asset to SouthPeak growth as a major publisher.” But Eibeler hasn't always seen others throw respect his way. Aside from investors ousting him and other ex-Take-Two management in 2007, replacing them with the current team led by Strauss Zelnick, MarketWatch also named him "Worst CEO" of any industry in 2005. As SouthPeak noted in a press release, however, Eibeler led Take-Two's growth from $250 million in revenues to over $1.3 billion from when he joined in 2005 to when he left. He also led the company through one of its most difficult times -- the "Hot Coffee" hidden sex minigame uproar stemming from Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and initial investigations into stock option improprieties at Take-Two by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, in which Eibeler was cleared of wrongdoing. Nevertheless, Eibeler, who also briefly served as president of Acclaim, is looking forward to his new duties at SouthPeak. "I am excited to be part of SouthPeak’s board of directors,” said Eibeler in a statement. "SouthPeak’s robust pipeline and entrepreneurial management team has set a course for rapid growth. I look forward to working with the SouthPeak’s highly motivated team of professionals as we approach the 2009 holiday season." Eibeler is currently chair of interactive software distributor Cokem International.