From: ldo@nz.invalid   
      
   So Electronic Arts will cease to be a publicly-traded company on the   
   Stock Exchange, and will now be owned by a consortium of private   
   companies   
   .   
      
   Why did this happen? Sometimes this going-private stratagem is used to   
   rescue a company in financial trouble (e.g. Dell), but I didn’t know   
   of that applying in this case. Somebody just saw some writing on the   
   wall, and decided to take action before things got irretrievably bad   
   ... I guess.   
      
   It will mean a difference in future behaviour of the company, but   
   what? Publicly-traded companies often fall victim to too much focus on   
   boosting the share price from quarter to quarter; being privately   
   owned might allow EA to concentrate on longer-term strategies that   
   could take years to pay off.   
      
   But then, that depends on the patience of the investors.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)