Mergers and sales of big third-party video game companies have become all the rage in recent years, and according to a new report by the news website Puck, Electronic Arts could be next in line.
Following on from Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, EA has reportedly "been persistent in pursuing a sale" - holding talks with companies such as Apple, Disney and Amazon.
It allegedly spoke with NBCUniversal as well - with Comcast CEO Brian Roberts proposing a merger.
Negotiations were believed to have taken place over several weeks between lawyers and bankers from both parties, and it would have seen the Roberts family take majority control of the combined entity - supposedly with EA CEO Andrew Wilson in charge.
Disagreements over the pricing and structure of the proposal apparently led to the collapse of this potential merger. Both parties declined to comment on the matter, with EA saying it would not comment on rumours and speculation.
EA has reportedly been spurred on by Activision Blizzard being acquired by Microsoft, and it's also mentioned in the report how the company would prefer to keep Andrew Wilson on as the chief executive if a merger was to take place.
How would you feel about EA being snapped up by another company? Leave your own thoughts down below.
[source puck.news, via videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 18
Sony dont have the money, Microsoft wouldn't be allowed by FTC so soon after activision and Microsoft probably won't allow the xbox division to spend another 50-70 billion so soon either, and nintendo just wouldn't.
So yeah I think it's down to Disney, Amazon, NBC or Apple this time which would be good as they would still be multi platform on consoles.
Though a merger would be the best outcome
I really hope this doesn't happen. Between the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Dead Space remake, Dragon Age 4, and a new Mass Effect, EA seems to finally be (slowly) turning things around. Selling to an even bigger corporation can only be a bad thing.
@UltimateOtaku91 Apple would not be good because they could make you go through their Apple Arcade and force you to have an IOS device to play on. Amazon has only done PC games so far.
Odds don’t look to good for console gamers
@Kooky_Daisuke they made a few billion profit year on year so they definitely aren't in trouble
Anyone thinking if they did sell the games would stay multiplatform is mad , even reading the embracer financial report basically says. We are gonna break even unless we rent a IP out to a single OR multiple platforms , money is key and whoever buys will want to make it back asap and if they are offered a gd price to have a timed or exclusive release they will take it
I'd only trust them under Microsoft or Sony. Google haven't shown anything, Apple or Amazon we don't know what would happen, probably not any good, and Tencent no one wants things under.
Sony can't afford something of that scale, and MS can't do anything until after Activision and I don't think they'd get something of that scale through straight away.
As long as they remain multiplat. But someone should put more quality into their sports games, like Sony does with MLB the Show
Losing EA Play on Game Pass would hurt
Someone is looking for a golden parachute.
A garbage company buying another? Who knew! 😂
@UltimateOtaku91 I don't agree that it would be a good outcome for any of those companies to buy EA. Sure, games would remain multi-plat, but none of those companies understand, or frankly even care about videogames. I guess the era when game publishers were passionate about games, is well and truly over. Just a bunch of corporate dollar generators now.
All this buying is really not a good thing. I'm glad we still have our indies making games for passion and not strictly for $. Indies and Nintendo games consist of 90%+ of my gaming.
They said they prefer a merger. So t2 or ubisoft sounds like a good idea.
@Grail_Quest Yup, welcome to the state of the industry in 2022. Passion is out, corporate greed is in.
It is beyond spooky that so many big companies are looking to sell. Are people looking to protect themselves from a market crash on the horizon or do they just see dollar signs from all of the recent acquisitions? I could see someone approaching EA for an acquisition and getting bought that way, but never would've imagined they would actively seek one out.
@CrazyJF Yeah, good points.
EA isn't going to get what they are asking for. They have some great franchises, and even some good devs, but the management has been piss poor. They just don't have the leverage.
The best outcome for them would be to be bought up by someone who is actually passionate and commited to video games, but that will be very slim pickings with the recent purchases going on. Out of the available options, Disney is the best one, and that aint all that great.
I hope that someone buys them, and shuts the company down six months later. A taste of their own medicine.
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