What a shocker (OK, not really but you get the idea). Electronic Arts got rebuffed by Take Two Interactive during Take Two's annual stockholders meeting on Thursday night (you can listen to the audio archive on Take Two's web site). Basically Take Two stood their ground against the EA $26 a share takeover offer, with company execs stating they believe Take Two is worth more than that and that they will be happy to entertain offers after April 30 (just after the launch, not so coincidentally, of their flagship game Grand Theft Auto IV which is expected to sell 6 million copies in just its first week). Indeed, Take Two execs claim that they have already had some interest in talking with unnamed third parties.

All of that scuttlebutt has apparently made EA blink. The company had previously set a deadline of today for their $26 a share offer to Take Two but this morning EA announced that offer was being extended to May 16. The actual dollar ammount has dropped slightly to $25.74 a share which EA states is because of "additional shares to be issued to Zelnick Media" following the Take Two shareholder meeting. EA still believes that they have a fair offer and that over 6 million shares in Take Two stock have accepted EA's buyout plan. So we have at least another month of drama before things come to a head again.