Proxy fight for 'Grand Theft Auto' maker

NEW YORK, March 7 (UPI) -- An investor group has launched a proxy fight to take control of a U.S. videogame publisher's board of directors, a securities filing said Wednesday.

The group -- including OppenheimerFunds Inc. and hedge funds SAC Capital Advisors, D.E. Shaw & Co. and Tudor Investment Corp. -- plans to nominate six people to the board of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., which created the Grand Theft Auto series, and oust Chief Executive Paul Eibeler, the Securities and Exchange Commission filing said.

The shareholder group, which controls 46 percent of Take-Two's stock, would also reduce the board's size to six so its members would constitute the entire board, the filing said.

Take-Two founder and former Chief Executive Ryan Brant pleaded guilty in New York Feb. 14 to a stock-option backdating scheme and agreed to pay $7.3 million in penalties.

Brant settled the SEC probe without admitting or denying wrongdoing, his lawyer said. He also agreed he would not serve as an officer or director of a public company.