According to Joystiq, the most popular video game analyst ever, Wedbush Morgan Securities’ Michael Pachter said today that he believes EA will eventually acquire Take-Two. Currently Electronic Arts has offered $2 billion for Take-Two. They have wanted this to happen for a while, but have only gone public with this new offer recently. By bringing the offer to the attention of the public in general, in particular Take-Two stock holders, EA has in effect begun what may be a hostile takeover.

Funny thing is, since going public, EA’s stock has dropped, while Take-Two’s stock has actually risen to upwards of 47%, making them just shy of the $2 billion offer EA has made.

While everyone is dwelling on the upcoming mammoth of a game, Grand Theft Auto IV, EA may actually be more interested in the 2K series of sports games. Pachter says,

“We think that the real urgency of the EA bid is to avoid competition from Take-Two sports titles scheduled for release later in the year. By our math, each year that the companies compete in sports costs EA $150 million in operating profit.”

We’ll have to wait and see what happens, but I have to say, $2 billion is a lot of money. Can Take-Two really afford to turn them down? How many GTA games can they really expect Rockstar to pump out to keep them making money? They lost any hope of NFL licensing for at least the next few years, I forgot how long exactly. What is a company to do? Sellout?

Boom!