Eidos advises shareholders to do nothing as SCi bid gathers pace

British publisher Eidos has advised its shareholders to "take no action" while it continues to evaluate the Elevation Partners and SCi offers for the company - but acceptance of SCi's bid this morning passed the 30 per cent mark.

In a short statement released late on Friday, Eidos' board confirmed that it has been in discussions with both bidders regarding their offers, but said that it plans to "await further clarification in relation to each offer... before recommending a final course of action."

Last month, Eidos endorsed the Elevation offer only hours before SCi announced its rival bid, which offers one new SCi share for every six Eidos shares held - in contrast to the all-cash Elevation bid, which offers 50 pence per share.

However, despite the Eidos board's suggestion that shareholders should do nothing until a final recommendation is made, another large institutional investor has this morning accepted SCi's offer.

The latest investor to irrevocably accept the offer is Plane Investment, whose holding represents around 3.52 per cent of Eidos. Plane joins Merrill Lynch, Gartmore and Schroder, all of which have previously accepted the offer.

Combined with a small additional number of shares committed to the deal by Merrill Lynch this morning, SCi now has undertakings representing around 30.37 per cent of Eidos' share capital - with 28.37 per cent of those undertakings still binding even if a higher bid is submitted for the publisher.

SCi is expected to massively restructure Eidos' operations if its bid is successful, while Elevation Partners, headed up by former EA president John Riccitiello, is likely to leave more of the current senior management in place and plans to take the firm private for several years.