As many gamers know, Tecmo (the folks who own Team NINJA, who made the Ninja Gaiden titles) has been in quite a sore spot for awhile now (see: Tecmo's shares go down, way down and All Tecmo employees suing the company for some background. Hm, wonder if you could make a 'See Tecmo Run' book series out of this). Well, Square Enix seems to be swooping in for the kill, having submitted a proposal to the company today for "basic conditions of acquisition of shares of common stock issued by TECMO (the “TECMO Shares”) through a friendly take over bit (the “TOB”) (the “Proposal”) in order to obtain consent to the TOB by the board of directors of TECMO."

I assume take over bit is meant to read "take over bid", but yeah.

The deadline, as outlined by the proposal, is September 4. You don't waste no time, do you Squeenix? Well, this isn't the first time they've made such an acquisition (Taito was absorbed in 2005).

The proposal follows the news of President Yoshimi Yasuda resigning, rumoured to be due to how the company handled the Itagaki situation.

I'm just hoping this betters Tecmo as a company, in terms of its practices and how it treats its employees. As much as you can tell from a deal outline (below), it seems like a distinct possibility. Squeenix is a pretty good company, so all the best to both.

1. The reason to submit the Proposal
Video games have been globally recognized as a major entertainment genre, and have now become an industry receiving considerable attention in terms of its market size and growth potential. In the meantime, the game industry in Japan is standing at a critical juncture whether it continues to be a center of the video game industry in the world, or not.

TECMO is a group of excellent creators with proven track-record in the global market, which is a precious human resource of Japan. We, however, cannot be optimistic about the future of this significant resource, given the current circumstances surrounding TECMO.

We believe that TECMO will be able to make a great leap forward by joining the Square Enix Group, which will provide the group with further growth opportunities as well.

We are planning to position TECMO as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Square Enix Holdings maintaining TECMO’s current organization and brand as in the cases of Square Enix and Taito.

2. Major Points of the Proposal
(1) TOB Price: 920 yen per share
Adding a premium of 30%+ to TECMO’s closing stock price as of August 28, 2008 (706 yen).

(2) Number of the TECMO Shares to acquire
Lower Limit: More than half of the outstanding TECMO Shares upon fully-diluted basis (including residual shares subject to stock options).
Upper Limit: None.

(3) Deadline to reply the Proposal: September 4 (Thursday)
If the Company should, by the deadline, receive no response from TECMO, or fail to obtain consent by the board of directors of TECMO to the TOB, the Company will withdraw the Proposal, and will NOT acquire the TECMO Shares through the TOB as planned in the Proposal.