Take-Two gets a new shareholder: Jack Thompson
No, your eyes are not deceiving you. Jack Thompson has purchased shares in Take-Two interactive - otherwise known as the publisher behind the Grand Theft Auto series of games. So has JT suddenly become a financial supporter of the company he's long campaigned against? Not a chance. JT has purchased stock in the company in order that he might attend Take-Two's shareholder meetings and face up to the company's CEO, Paul Eibeler.
In advance of attending the shareholder's meeting, he sent a ranting letter to Eibeler, outlining his plan to attend the meeting and visit several issues that have been on our favorite lawyer's mind as of late. In the letter, JT questions Eibeler's handling of the "Hot Coffee" sex scandal (which won an award, by the way) and mentions a report by MarketWatch naming Eibeler as the "worst CEO of 2005". Up until this point, the letter raises legitimate concerns that any shareholder could have regarding the company's CEO.
But, as JT's letters always do, it degrades into a messy rant against the video game industry in general. At one point, JT refers to Microsoft's Flight Simulator as a training simulator for the 9/11 terrorists: "What's next, Paul, a game in which players can practice flying commercial jetliners into the World Trade Towers? Oh, I forgot. Microsoft already did that." We're not going to dignify that statement with a retort. As these kind of statements demonstrate: Jack Thompson is, and will forever remain, a childish attention seeker. We hope the organisers of the next Take-Two shareholder's meeting refuse to obey JT's request for a "cordless microphone at the shareholders meeting." That's all he needs: a voice.
