So the author has opened a short sale position that obviously is not working out too well for him and wrote the article to help recover his losses.  Brilliantly skewed article that could make any company look bad however in take overs and buyouts companies hardly ever factor management or business models into their top two list because once companies are bought out or taken over they are usually adapted to the parent companies norms and business practices.  A potential buyout or takeover is looked at for what the company has the potential for, it's assets, and current IP's in production.  For a company that has historically had 1 billion dollar years and with a current market cap of less than $500 million for a company that is medium and worldwide I can see why there are rumors circulating.  How much truth to that remains to be seen as we have all heard it before.

you're absolutely right that I'm biased as I have disclosed that I have a short position (which I probably should have been busy increasing rather than writing the article), but I know this space very well and have put my name out there in stating my case.

Most rumors turn out to be 100% false and spread by unethical market participants.  For me, more important than my own personal financial gain is the truth.  If there was truth in this rumor, I want to know why someone knows and I don't know and I want to know the substance behind what is being whispered rather than vague nonsense designed to make someone money.

If it is false, I want to know who is spreading false info so I can call them out on it next time they do it.

Thanks for the feedback, in any case.  Anything is, of course, possible.

The buyout rumor is very vague.. "potential takeover target" and listing 4 companies with "such as" :

11:55 EDTTHQI, ERTS, VIA, NWS, TWX theflyonthewall.com: Sources say THQ Inc is a potential takeover target; DealReporter reportsAccording to DealReporter sources, THQ Inc may be takeover target for media conglomerates such as Viacom (VIA), News Corp (NWS), and Time Warner (TWX) or a game maker such as Electronic Arts (ERTS). :theflyonthewall.com

theflyonthewall.com/pe...137921

Who bought the thousands of calls ahead of that rumor, and what is their connection to dealReporter (or in the highly unlikely event the rumor is true, to THQ)?

Markets are made and broke by rumors and deals.  Being upset about this is a novice mistake and in addition its crossing many newswires and different analysts have weighed in on the possibilities.  I wish you luck sir in your future endeavors as arguing online is about the same as trying to keep flies out of your house with your windows open and I will not be returning to this post.  There is too much to accomplish out there.

some further reasoning:

I just don't get the value proposition here. What I see is a CEO who makes 2M/yr and cut a massive part of the business in order to make sure his job is perfectly safe. Yet, in a q where they released a wildly successful UFC title, they BARELY made a profit even after all those cuts. Isn't that a problem? And the company's growth potential is ridiculously limited. Unlike other publishers, this company has a history of laying it all out there in terms of what they're working on. There's no secrets. The fact that they admit they're working on a Red Faction and Darksider sequel for 2012 shows how weak their ip really is. Other problems:

WWE interest continues to decline and has become a bad fit for the new consoles. Madden is showing a HUGE drop in PS2 sales - WWE will show the same again.

Like Fight Night, UFC is not an annual purchase. I agree with their strategy of releasing annually to milk it as much as they can (why not?), but I wouldn't expect 1st year with years of pent up demand to follow up with another year of huge sales. We should see y/y decline followed by growth.

hmmm...i really need to think hard about the next one...

Saints Row - not only did this franchise get weaker on the second try, but the idea analysts have that they're going to do it in a new city and release it next year is just crazy. Games like this are now taking three years to develop. Take this out of next year and you lose all hope of overall y/y growth.

Darksiders - almost forgot - this game will very likely not make a profit. I saw the interest level at e3 and it was low and buzz is almost non existant.

Homefront - Looks sort of promising but 2012 at earliest and even high quality new IP is generally not making profits in this cycle.

Red Faction sequel - the current one is not profitable so they're following up with another one. Brilliant.

The biggest problem is there's really not much else. It's all small offerings, and shovelware which no longer has a nice home like it did in PS2 days. PS2 people have moved onto the Wii and are playing Nintendo titles and hardcore buyers are very picky. With not that much else to offer this company is very limited in terms of growth potential, and actually desperate for IP since they're putting resources into unprofitable titles like Red Faction. Meanwhile, their Dreamworks and Disney title licenses are no longer profitable either.

So even if they make the profit analysts expect this year of .15, what's next? My guess is that FY11/FY12 will actually be breakeven years at best. I would value this company by considering upside earning potential to be extremely limited given their small weak slate and throw 15x .20 earnings = $3. I wouldn't short heavily because there's a lot of speculators in this market bidding up all kinds of crap. But being long here with a good understanding of this sector I think you're out of your mind.