News Corp interest in Eidos "completely untrue"
Speaking privately, sources at Rupert Murdoch's media empire have categorically denied claims from Eidos insiders that News Corp is about to buy the Lara Croft publisher.
News Corp sources have today flatly denied that the company is in any kind of buyout talks with Eidos, despite several sources from within the British publisher this week boasting that a deal between the two companies was imminent.
"It's totally incorrect," said a News Corp staffer today. "We're not even in talks with them, so we'd be struggling to be about to buy them. It's weird; there's someone internally saying, 'Oh, it's happening next week,' so I'd love to know if that person has bought the stock then watched it go up after leaking the rumour. That's the situation. Eidos may be on the verge of being sold, but not to us."
Officially, the News Corp line is that it "doesn't comment on rumour and speculation".
Eidos declined to comment today.
Despite the false alarm on a News Corp buyout, strong signs still suggest that an Eidos sale could be completed within a matter of weeks, although the identity of any prospective buyer remains mysterious.