Wall Street criticism of Strauss Zelnick’s juicy compensation deal refuses to go away.

Writing for TheStreet.com, Eric Jackson, founder and president of Ironfire Capital, maintains that Zelnick and his ZelnickMedia management group have “given all activist investors a black eye with how they’ve paid themselves.”

ZelnickMedia sold themselves to their supporters at the day as “corporate turnaround specialists.” …Yet, despite making executive changes, ordering new business plans for the different organizational units and holding town-hall meetings at which employees asked their new leaders whether they knew anything about the video games Take-Two made, ZelnickMedia has not been successful in repositioning Take-Two in the year since its ascension…

Zelnick added that the fuss [about the compensation package] is much ado about nothing: “I’m a boy scout

- everyone knows that about me”. Well, unfortunately, actions speak louder than do-gooder words… In that case, ZelnickMedia’s actions seem self-serving even whether they were somehow valid.

Meanwhile, the unexpected news that EA’s chief financial officer Warren Jenson will be leaving the company may prove unsettling to investors in the midst of the company’s hostile takeover bid for Take Two. GameDaily cites UBS analyst Ben Schachter:

We believe Mr. Jenson’s departure was a mutual decision, and while it’s not surprising that CEO John Riccitiello would want to reshuffle his team, the timing may raise eyebrows given lag since other key mgmt changes, the pending offer for TTWO, and coming right before the end of the fiscal year.

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