Slipping through Take-Two Interactive's blind spot and taking pole position, EA's revving its engine for a potential takeover of racing games giant Codemasters.

For the last few years, gaming giant Ubisoft has been trying to fend off a hostile takeover by Vivendi, the media company once owned Activision-blizzard, before it managed to buy itself back. For years, the media company has been gobbling up Ubisoft stocks where it could, eventually becoming a major stockholder with an eye towards Ubisoft’s board.

Despite claims that the French media company wanted to close out the deal before the end of 2017, Vivendi is backing off Ubisoft for the time being.

The acquisition back and forth between Vivendi and Ubisoft seems to have gone on for aeons, but it looks like the French media conglomerate wants its hostile takeover to happen this year.

Ubisoft is offering its employees a chance to buy shares in the company for a discount, to help keep potential overord Vivendi in check.

It’s all over… for now. EA Games has released a statement announcing that they are no longer pursuing a takeover bid for Take Two International. No real reasons have been given yet but I would wager it has something to do with the negative publicity combined with a great current EA line up and the new and improved financial position …