Paul Eibeler was CEO of

Take-Two Interactive Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City and founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993. The company owns two major publishing labels, Rockstar Games and 2K, which operate internal g ...

between 2005 and 2007. Prior to this role, he served as president of the company between July 2000 and June 2003.

Early life

Eibler was born on July 26, 1955 in

Hicksville, New York Hicksville is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York. The population of the CDP was 41,547 at the 2010 census. History Valentine Hicks, son-in-law of abolitionist ...

. He attended Holy Trinity High School where he excelled in basketball and this enabled him to earn an athletic scholarship to Loyola College of Maryland. He was awarded the ECAC Merit Medal in his senior year and graduated in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts degree..

Take-Two Interactive

In July 2000, Eibeler joined

as president and director. In April 2003, he left Take-Two after a medical leave, and returned as president and director in April 2004, replacing Ryan Brant who was being investigated for accounting irregularity. In February 2005, Eibeler replaced Richard Roedel as CEO. In March 2007, Eibeler resigned as CEO after a proxy battle. Most notable events during Eibler's management: *In July 2005, CEO Eibeler oversaw a Federal Trade Commission investigation into advertising practices and claims. *In July 2005, Eibeler oversaw the rating change of best-selling game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas from "Mature" to "Adult" and the resulting drop in distribution. *In late 2005,

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

commentator

Herb Greenberg Herb Greenberg (born June 8, 1952 in Miami, Florida) is an American journalist. Early life Greenberg graduated from the University of Miami with a bachelor's degree in journalism. Career Greenberg was a New York-based financial corresponden ...

named Eibeler the worst American CEO of that year. *In 2006 Eibeler oversaw investigations into backdating of options for former Take-Two executives which resulted in the company's founder, Ryan Brant pleading guilty and was convicted of a felony. *Throughout his tenure, CEO Eibeler oversaw a groundswell of political pressure against Take-Two from the political right, and from conservative activist Jack Thompson. Penny Arcade came to Eibeler's defense after attacks by Thompson and donated $10,000 to charity. Thompson has since been disbarred. *Take-Two grew from $250 million in revenue to over $1.5 billion, the company's market capitalization increased from $250 million to over $1.5 billion and employee numbers grew from 200 to 2000. *The shareholder base included key funds such as Fidelity, Legg Mason, Seligman, Oppenheimer, etc. *The company developed over 30 million major unit titles including the

Grand Theft Auto ''Grand Theft Auto'' (''GTA'') is a series of action-adventure games created by David Jones (video game developer), David Jones and Mike Dailly (game designer), Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan Hous ...

franchise, Midnight Club, Max Payne,

Sid Meier Sidney K. Meier ( ; born February 24, 1954) is a Canadian-American programmer, designer, and producer of several strategy video games and simulation video games, including the ''Civilization'' series. Meier co-founded MicroProse in 1982 with B ...

's Civilization, Bioshock, Carnival Games, and maintained premier relationships with the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

, the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

, the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

and

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

through the 2K Sports division. *Take-Two's stock rose 198% from $7.58 per share in July 2000 to $15.01 a share in April 2003. Upon returning in 2004, shares rose 26% from $23.46 in April 2004 to a high of $29.34 in June 2005.

Other roles

On August 3, 2009,

SouthPeak Games SouthPeak Interactive Corporation, doing business as SouthPeak Games, was an American video game publisher based in Midlothian, Virginia. Founded on March 1, 1996, as a subsidiary of SAS Institute in Cary, North Carolina, it was sold and moved t ...

announced that Eibeler had joined its board of directors.http://investor.southpeakgames.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=198218&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1316001&highlight=

Personal life

Eibeler has been married to Mary for more than 30 years and has three children. He currently lives in Long Island.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eibeler, Paul 1955 births Living people Loyola Greyhounds men's basketball players Take-Two Interactive Video game businesspeople People from Hicksville, New York American technology chief executives American men's basketball players