Take-Two Interactive CEO on challenges in China
The CEO of games publisher Take-Two Interactive, Strauss Zelnick, used his perch at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference on Thursday to launch a broadside against China.
Zelnick, a newly appointed board member at CBS, told investors of the many hurdles of growing the gaming business while Chinese companies can operate without any challenges.
"We have a completely odd and unequal situation where Chinese companies can come to the U.S. and buy companies no problem in our space," he said. "And if they don't want to do that, they can bring a title here and market it and keep all the proceeds."
Zelnick added: "In order to go to China, we've have to have half our business owned by a local company in China. The good news is they provide expertise. We are in business with companies like Tencent and we are thrilled to be in business with them, but we don't have a choice to be clear."
The Take-Two chief executive added that the firm needs government approvals to launch games in China, which in itself is a political process, and added: "China's been stealing our intellectual property for a really long time. Those things just have to change."
So far, the tariff wars with China have not included any measures involving the entertainment sector to any large extent, but Zelnick wants to see some changes. "I'm not sure why the U.S. government thinks that it's an OK thing to do with our sector."
Here's the link to the webcast to listen to the full session, and here's a link to Zelnick's CNBC interview where he talks about the need for boards to have good compliance, a clear reference to CBS.
Zelnick also used the stage to promote his new book, “Becoming Ageless,” which drew a few laughs from the crowd.