Eidos board under fire over Elevation bid bias

'Accept SCi's rival offer - or else...'

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

Posted in Financial News, 5th April 2005 12:43 GMT

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Eidos shareholders may move to fire the troubled games publisher's board after company executives failed to back a bid from rival publisher SCi.

Last week, Eidos' board told shareholders to stay calm until it had had a chance to assess SCi's share-swap offer, launched as an alternative to Elevation Partners' £71m cash bid for the publisher, which had already won the board's approval.

SCi claims to have won the support of more than 30 per cent of Eidos' shareholders, enough to force Elevation to re-table its own bid. Eidos' board is believed to be waiting for Elevation's response before changing its stance on SCi's offer.

However, according to a report in yesterday's Daily Telegraph newspaper, some institutional investors are becoming increasingly annoyed that the board hasn't recommended the SCi offer. This morning, SCi's bid is worth 70p a share, or £101.8m. Elevation's bid was worth 50p a share.

"It is beyond belief that the Eidos board has not yet revoked its recommendation of the Elevation bid," one investor told the paper. "If it does not do what its shareholders clearly want it to do, we may be forced to call an EGM and get rid of the management."

If Eidos does take up SCi's offer, it is expected that the board members will lose their posts. Elevation has said it will keep at least some of them on. ®