Take-Two to Acquire Gearbox for $460 Million

Grand Theft Auto maker Take-Two Interactive announced that it will acquire Gearbox for $460 million and push forward with the next Borderlands title.

“Our acquisition of Gearbox is an exciting moment for Take-Two and will strengthen our industry-leading creative talent and portfolio of owned intellectual property, including the iconic Borderlands franchise,” Take-Two chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick said. “This combination enhances the financial profile of our existing projects with Gearbox and unlocks the opportunity for us to drive increased long-term growth by leveraging the full resources of Take-Two across all of Gearbox’s exciting initiatives.”

Take-Two and Gearbox have been partners for 20 years, and they’ve collaborated on every installment of the iconic Borderlands franchise to date, so this link up feels particularly natural. As part of the acquisition, Take-Two will now control all of Gearbox’s intellectual property, including its previous games— Brothers in Arms, Duke Nukem, Homeworld, Risk of Rain, and others—and the future pipeline of titles. Take-Two notes that five of the future games are franchise sequels—to Borderland and Homeworld—while one new title is notably “exciting.”

Take-Two will operate Gearbox as an independent studio that will be led by the company’s current CEO and management team. Gearbox has locations in Frisco, Texas; Montreal, Canada; and Quebec City, Canada, but there’s no word on whether these will remain as-is.

Take-Two expects to conclude the transaction by the end of June 2024. I can’t imagine it will receive much in the way of regulatory attention.