EA Gets a New Soldier in the Takeover Fight

SILICON VALLEY, Calif. — It’s not wise to go without a consigliere in a mob war. That’s why Electronic Arts appointed Eric Brown as chief financial officer today. The Godfather himself, EA CEO John Riccitiello, needs Brown to run the numbers on taking over Take-Two Interactive. Yesterday, Take-Two’s board rejected EA’s $2 billion hostile tender offer as inadequate.

Brown, 42, worked in the late 1990s as chief operating officer and CFO for EA’s Redwood Shores studio. Before his latest appointment. Brown was CFO and chief operating officer at McAfee. He replaces Warren Jenson, 51, who wasn’t up for the gang war (see prior coverage). McAfee has said it has started its own search for a consigliere.

You know that saying. Jerry Sanders, former CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, once said to me, “Old men for counsel. Young men for war.”