Something is afoot here for him to make this move.  The guy is one of the most activist owners, and a 11.3% ownership is alot of clout for him to push forth his agenda, in fact I think he might be the biggest shareholder at this point.  The key issue is what's on the horizon that makes him think this is a good investment?  sure, they have Bioshock 2 and Red Dead Redemption, but there's not another GTA on the horizon, and Ichan has a very chummy history with the current CEO of TTWO.  The question is WHO has the clout to buy the company...EA is too busted, and I doubt Activision-Blizzard wants this messy acqusition, so basically, who has at least an extra billion dollars lying around to spend? 

The outlook doesn't look like somehting to spent this kind of money on:

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/is-icahn-setting-his-sights-on-take-two/?partner=yahoofinance

Mr. Zelnick told Reuters in an interview on Thursday that the company expected to incur a second consecutive annual net loss in fiscal 2010 as it continued to feel the pressure of weak economic conditions.

He said the company was looking at ways to cut costs, but that it was not planning layoffs.

Well, sales wise, thats a stupid move for him. Bioshock isn't going to sell, and neither is Red Dead. Bioshock is a masterpiece but it didn't sell that great, and Red Dead looks very promising but unless it's called Grand Theft Redemption, it's not going to sell.

EA did this a couple months back. The company was hurting for money so badly that their top officers were buying stock in the company. I think that is what is happening here

^^^ ? Ichan isn't an officer in the company.

Hmm. He may still be trying to do the same thing

MSFT can certainly buy them, but they won't.

Sony Step in and buy TTWO, It would be beautiful for the PS4 .

Microsoft is about the only game related company I could conceive that could possibly purchase them. Unfortunately they are about one of the last companies that would. The ones whom I think would buy the company are the ones whom can't. It doesn't make sense from their perspective to purchase a failing company like that, it isn't in their style to buy companies with the idea of turning them around.

However there is one scenario where purchasing TT makes sense and that is if Microsofts ambitions were to spin off the Entertainment and devices division into a seperate entity. This is scuppered by the fact that they recently created a new campus building for EDD in Microsoftville.

The only reason a Microsoft or Sony would buy this company would be to f*ck the other company by having the GTA series completely exclusive. Having said that Sony doesnt have the extra money for it and MS does not want the issues that come with a company that loses money each year.

^^^ Another alternative is for MSFT or somebody else to support a merger with another company, like Epic or Valve, and M$ takes a minority share and silent ownership.