SCi shareholders give approval to Eidos deal

British publisher SCi has cleared one of the final hurdles on the path to completing its acquisition of Eidos, with an extraordinary general meeting of the firm's shareholders this morning giving its approval to the proposed deal.

At the meeting this morning, shareholders voted in favour of both of the measures which SCi will have to take to complete the deal - the issuing of 23.7 million shares to effect the buyout of Eidos, and the issuing of a further 20 million shares to provide capital for the merged company.

With over 70 per cent of Eidos' shareholders having now accepted the SCi offer, this means that the deal has only one more barrier to pass before it becomes unconditional - namely the admission of those shares, which will happen on Monday.

The remaining Eidos shareholders will then have until Tuesday, May 24th to accept the offer, although SCi and its partner in this transaction, KBC Peel Hunt, have the option to extend that deadline if they wish.

In effect, what all of this means is that SCi's acquisition of its rival is nearing completing - and the process of integrating the two companies, whose offices are located only a few miles away from each other in south London, could be underway by the start of June.