Take-Two CEO claps back at investor over GTA 6 delay concerns

Take-Two’s recent shareholder meeting seems to have been quite eventful. Along with clarifying that the team will continue to support GTA Online, CEO Strauss Zelnick had an objection to one of the questions posed by an investor about Take-Two’s history of delays, including GTA 6, and the competency of current management.

This question, in particular, the CEO chose to read out:

Many shareholders have tolerated years of delays, missed expectations, and continued dependence on a small number of major franchises. If these issues persist, does the board believe that the current management team remains the right group to lead the company, or is prepared to replace senior executives if operational performance and shareholder value creation do not improve?

In his response, Zelnick started by saying that if, in fact, the management didn’t perform up to expectations, the board would surely replace them. He then shared his grievance with how the question was phrased, starting with giving a brief history of the state that Take-Two was in before the current management took over in 2007.

When this management team took over the company in March of ‘07, the stock price was at 17. The revenue of the company was under a billion dollars. The company was under investigation by at least four government entities, had not filed annual reports. In 13 months and had not scheduled an annual meeting despite obligations to do so. They had one major franchise in GTA. The rest of the business was losing money, and the company was very nearly bankrupt.

Zelnick then listed what him and his team were able to achieve since then, saying, “this management team has reduced the cost profile at that time, diversified the company meaningfully, entered the mobile business, launched more than 11 franchises that have each sold over 5 million units with an individual release. And today is the largest by market cap of pure play interactive entertainment company that's public on Earth.”

He then addressed the abysmal stock price in 2007 with more up-to-date numbers for 2026. “Our stock has appreciated since March of '07 to today about 1,200% versus the S&P at 440% and the Nasdaq at 980%. So, and of course the company's revenue is guided to be between 8 and $8.2 billion this year with very significant pre-cash flow anticipated.”

Of course, there are no rebuttals in this kind of meeting, so we don’t hear what the investor might have had to say. However, the CEO didn’t exactly address the delays, and his response could be considered as being defensive, but it’s pretty clear that the investor concerns didn’t sit right with him. It is also clear that Zelnick is proud of what his management team has achieved over the past two decades.