The Wall Street Journal - 11.03.2020

B4| Wednesday, March 11, 2020 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.**

BYSARAHE.NEEDLEMAN

BEBETO MATTHEWS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

“Expanding the NFL’s pres-

ence in the world of gaming

has become a focus for the

league as we look to grow the

next generation of our fan

base and reviving our partner-

ship with 2K was a natural

step in that effort,” said Joe

Ruggiero, senior vice presi-

dent of consumer products at

the NFL.

The 2K studio produced the

NFL 2K franchise of games re-

leased between 1999 and

2004. The year after the series
      came to an end, the NFL and
      NFLPA signed an exclusive
      deal with EA for simulation
      games. That deal has since
      been renewed several times
      and it next expires in March


2005. 
      

build its portfolio of sports

games, which already includes

the NBA 2K and WWE fran-

chises. The company has part-

nerships with the National

Basketball Association and

World Wrestling Entertain-

ment enabling them to simu-

late actual NBA and WWE

competitions for those series,

respectively.

Financial terms weren’t dis-

closed.

“At this time, all we can

confirm is that we’re working

on non-simulation football

videogames that are authentic,

fun, accessible and social, and

we’ll have more to share at a

later date,” said a Take-Two

spokesman.

Take-Two’s new deal would

After a more than 15-year
hiatus from making football
games, Take-Two Interactive
Software Inc. has reached a
new agreement with the Na-
tional Football League to pro-
duce multiple videogames.
But instead of competing
directly with rival Electronic
Arts Inc. and its Madden NFL
franchise, Take-Two’s 2K stu-
dio said Tuesday its new deal
allows it to create games that
use league imagery and team
names without replicating ac-
tion from a typical NFL game.
An example might be a three-
on-three matchup set in a
schoolyard only with NFL
marks and logos, according to
a person familiar with the
matter.
Industry analysts say Take-
Two’s renewed interest in
football and the NFL’s willing-
ness to engage with other
game publishers shows that
EA may face competition when
its current deal with the
league ends in March 2022.
Take-Two’s NFL projects
are early in development, the
company said, and the first
game under the new partner-
ship could launch next year.

Take-Two’s new games are

also expected to have players’

names and numbers though

that will require a separate

deal with the NFL Players As-

sociation, according to a per-

son familiar with the matter.

A Take-Two spokesman de-

clined to comment on whether

such negotiations were under

way.

EA said in 2018 it had sold

more than 130 million units

under the Madden NFL series

world-wide since the 1980s.

Madden NFL is typically one

of the top-selling console vid-

eogames in the U.S. each year.

In a statement Tuesday, EA

said its “commitment to NFL

fans, which spans almost 30

years, has never been stron-

ger” and that “Madden NFL 20

is the most successful game

ever in the franchise.”

Wedbush Securities analyst

Michael Pachter estimates that

EA pays about $50 million an-

nually to each the NFL and the

NFLPA for the rights to make

Madden NFL. An EA spokes-

man declined to comment,

adding that the company

doesn’t disclose such terms.

While the NFL has an exclu-

sive deal to make simulation

games, other leagues have

taken a different approach.

Major League Baseball and the

National Basketball Associa-

tion have nonexclusive deals

with multiple videogame de-

velopers for games that simu-

late their respective sports.

Take-Two Strikes NFL Videogame Deal

Its return to football

wouldn’t directly rival

the Electronic Arts

Madden franchise

The company’s portfolio of sports games already includes the NBA 2K and WWE franchises. The NBA 2K League esports playoffs.

Monday.

Even the professionals

sometimes hand over bad de-

cryption tools once they are

paid, said Jeff Stutzman, chief

information security officer at

security company Global

Guardian LLC, on the sidelines

of the conference.

“Two years ago, I paid the

third-largest ransom in U.S.

history. The company was los-

ing $25 million a day, they’d

shut down trading on Nasdaq,

and were facing extinction.

counsel at law firm Adams &

Reese LLP who focuses on

data security and privacy.

“Previously you had a few

bad actors, but they knew

what they were doing. Now

you have kids who are infect-

ing networks with ransomware

who really don’t know how to

do it right in the infection

stage, and they definitely

don’t know how to do it on the

decryption stage,” he said,

speaking at the WSJ Pro Cy-

bersecurity Symposium on

said Maria Thompson, state

chief risk and security officer

for North Carolina, referring

to paying ransoms.

In any case, Mr. Hadley

said, paying ransoms only

fixes the immediate problem,

if it solves it at all. It does

nothing to fix the underlying

vulnerabilities that let attack-

ers penetrate the network in

the first place, he said, and

those who neglect closing se-

curity holes could find them-

selves being extorted again.

man’s team was able to iden-

tify the ransomware, a variant

that changed its parameters

on the fly to avoid detection

software.

Authorities such as the Fed-

eral Bureau of Investigation

advise companies not to pay

ransoms, saying it encourages

further attacks. Senior offi-

cials from the Department of

Homeland Security have re-

peated that warning in recent

weeks.

“It just feeds the beast,”

When the first encryption key

came, three hours after I paid

a very high, six-figure sum, it

didn’t work,” he said.

After communications with

the attackers, a second key did

work, Mr. Stutzman said, but

that’s often not the end of the

story for companies hit by a

ransomware attack.

“Within 30 days, you’ll start

to see new activity. We fought

them back for months and

months,” he said. The attacks

stopped only after Mr. Stutz-

Twitter and payments com-

pany Square Inc., which he

also co-founded. Mr. Dorsey

last week defended holding

two CEO titles, telling inves-

tors, “I have enough flexibility

in my schedule to focus on the

most important things and I

have a good sense of what is

critical on both companies.”

Mr. Galloway said Mr.

Dorsey will “have to convince

them he’s the right CEO in the

mornings because afternoons

he’ll be at Square.”

The Twitter CEO in recent

months also drew criticism

from some investors for plan-

ning to spend part of this year

in Africa. Last week, he told in-

vestors he would reconsider

those plans first disclosed by

him in December via Twitter.

The new board committee

also will review Twitter’s stag-

gered board, in which only a

few members are up for re-

election each year. The ar-

rangement is typically seen as

making it harder for outside

investors to win control of

boards.

Mr. Dorsey lacks the super-

voting share structure that his

counterparts Mark Zuckerberg

at Facebook Inc. and Even

Spiegel at Snap Inc. enjoy. El-

liott holds about 4% of Twitter

stock. Mr. Dorsey owns around

2% of Twitter stock, according

to FactSet.

Silver Lake had looked at

purchasing Twitter in the past

and, after the news broke of

Elliott’s investment, reached

out to Mr. Dorsey, according to

a person familiar with the mat-

ter. Twitter has at times been a

takeover target. In 2016, busi-

ness-software provider Sales-

force.com Inc. considered, but

then abandoned, plans to ac-

quire the company.

On Monday, Twitter also

promised to grow its daily aver-

age use rate more than 20%

this year and beyond. It is a

pace it delivered in the last

quarter, though that was higher

than in most other recent quar-

ters. Twitter’s user growth has

lagged behind that of rivals. It

has 152 million daily average

users, according to its latest

quarterly figures. Facebook,

which started just two years

earlier now has more than 1.6

billion monthly users.

The user growth figure is

“aggressive and sets them up

for either tremendous success

or staggering failure,” said Mi-

chael Pachter, analyst at Wed-

Elliott has a history of tak-

ing on companies and causing

the departure of their CEOs,

sometimes months after get-

ting involved. Elliott and fellow

investor Starboard Value LP a

year ago criticized the perfor-

mance of online marketplace

eBay Inc. Elliott’s Mr. Cohn was

among three members added

to eBay’s board. Six months

later, Chief Executive Devin

Wenig resigned. Two years

ago, Athenahealth Inc. CEO

Jonathan Bush stepped down

amid Elliott pressure. Klaus

Kleinfeld, who ran aluminum

parts maker Arconic Inc., was

replaced in 2017, also following

heavy pressure from Elliott.

Elliott’s focus on Mr. Dorsey

in part stemmed from his split-

ting his CEO time between

Continued from page B1

Twitter

Chief Faces

Pressure

bush Securities. “The activist

investment caused manage-

ment to commit to something

that they cannot control.”

Twitter also said it would

accelerate year-over-year sales

growth, though it wouldn’t

spell out details until the fall.

The company said it could

work with Silver Lake on un-

specified “operational initia-

tives” focused on speeding

growth and faster product im-

provements.

The objectives put Mr.

Dorsey in the spotlight because

he has operated without a

chief operating officer, despite

his part-time status.

A spokesman said the ar-

rangement predated Mr.

Dorsey’s current stint as chief

executive that began in 2015.

“Assessing whether we need to

change that is part of the

board’s continuous work as-

sessing leadership and gover-

nance structures,” the spokes-

man said.

Mr. Dorsey ran Twitter a

first time until 2008, when he

was ousted as CEO, in part be-

cause of technical problems

with the platform. He returned

as executive chairman in 2011

and regained the CEO title in

2015, giving up the chair.

One of Elliott’s frustrations

with Twitter, according to a

person familiar with the mat-

ter, has been that it doesn’t ap-

pear to have capitalized on the

spotlight the platform has had

under President Trump, who

has made the platform an inte-

gral part of the daily news cy-

cle. The president has an-

nounced the dismissal of staff

members on Twitter, shaken

companies, and unveiled for-

eign policy decisions.

“Twitter is one of the most

important platforms in the

global dialogue,” Elliott’s Mr.

Cohn said Monday. “We in-

vested in Twitter because we

see a significant opportunity

for value creation.”

Under the agreement with

Twitter, Elliott has pledged not

to openly challenge manage-

ment for about a year.

Mr. Dorsey has irked

investors by serving

simultaneously as

CEO of Square.

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Paying
hackers to recover data
doesn’t guarantee they will ac-
tually do so, and sometimes
it’s because they don’t know
how, experts say.
The availability of ransom-
ware on dark-web forums
means that anyone with the
inclination and a relatively low
level of technical ability can
aim an attack at a company or
a city, said Roy Hadley, special

BYJAMESRUNDLE

Many Ransomware Hackers Can’t Undo Their Deeds

JOURNALISTS DON’T

‘JUST WRITE STORIES.’

THEY RECORD HISTORY.

Learn more about the impact your

journalism career can have on the world.

Wall Street Journal reporter Erin Ailworth

and others share career advice at

dowjonesnewsfund.org/careers.

© 2020 Dow Jones & Co., Inc. All rights reserved. 1DJ7685

Part of Your

Daily Rotation.

Discoveressentialnews,

business,marketsand

analysiswiththeWhat’s

Newspodcast.

LISTEN NOW

WSJ.COM/WHATS-NEWS

TECHNOLOGY WSJ.com/Tech