Electronic Arts is extending its unsolicited takeover offer for Take-Two Interactive Software, but is threatening to withdraw the $2 billion bid unless a newly hatched shareholder rights plan is withdrawn, the company said Friday.

The actions are the latest in the long-running courtship ritual of the two videogame companies.

On the news, shares of Redwood City, California-based Electronic Arts climbed $1.16, or 2.4 percent, to $49.31 in afternoon trading, while shares of Take-Two edged down $.08, or .3 percent, to $25.53.

Earlier in the week, Take-Two had reiterated its contention that the $26 per share offer was inadequate and said the company plans to examine "strategic alternatives," including a possible merger with EA, after the scheduled April 29 release of the latest version of its franchise title, Grand Theft Auto IV.

New York City-based Take-Two has maintained that the timing of EA's offer, before the Grand Theft Auto release and in the midst of company turnaround efforts, is "opportunistic." On Friday, EA said it is extending its tender offer from April 11 to April 18.

On Wednesday, Take-Two also disclosed it had adopted a "poison pill," or shareholder rights program, designed to make a hostile takeover prohibitively expensive, and said it had received indications of interest from unidentified alternative suitors.

In response, EA argued that its $26 per share offer, a 64 percent premium over Take-Two's closing stock price on February 15, the day before the EA's latest offer was disclosed, represents fair value.

“The actions of the Take-Two Board may increase the risk for their stockholders by delaying a potential transaction,” Owen Mahoney, EA's senior vice president of corporate development, said in a statement. “We continue to believe that our $26 per share offer price is full and fair, and that a transaction between Take-Two and EA is the most compelling combination financially, strategically and operationally for all parties.”