First of all, GamesRadar isn't exactly what you would call a reputable source. At least I don't consider them to be. They posted a story yesterday which was actually Nintendojo's April Fool's Joke (somehow, GamesRadar failed to realize that news posted on April 1st should be taken with a grain of salt. They also don't seem to realize that Nintendojo is rather sketchy as well).
Secondly, I don't think Rare is for sale. The other major owner of Rareware aside from Nintendo is the Stamper brothers (the guys who founded it). For Activision to buy out Rareware, the Stamper brothers would have to give up their share.
Thirdly, sit down and think about this for a second. Rareware is a huge development house of over 200 employees. Activision is not only much less well known but also smaller. Do you really think Activision can afford Rareware?
Fourthly, Activision is a publicly traded company. They would not be able to secretly purchase another company. Since the purchase of Rareware hasn't appeared on any company reports, it's highly unlikely that it ever happened. In these days with the collapse of Enron, companies are being especially careful not to hide their business deals.
Fifthly, Activision's sales were $748 million last year, with profits of $42 million. Nintendo is expected to post over $1 billion in just profits. All of this is publicly available information. Nintendo is not stupid enough to let some other company buy one of their second parties, and Nintendo wouldn't have any trouble at all outbidding Activision for Rareware.
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