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WOW! EA Buys 20% of UbiSoft

M

mcdonnell

Member
Press Release Source: Electronic Arts


EA Invests in UbiSoft Entertainment
Monday December 20, 2:02 am ET
Acquires Approximately 19.9 Percent Equity in Global Game Company


REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 20, 2004--Electronic Arts (Nasdaq:ERTS - News) today announced an investment in international game developer and publisher UbiSoft Entertainment, headquartered in Rennes, France. The investment represents approximately 19.9 percent interest in the company -- shares purchased as a block from Talpa Beheer B.V. to be completed upon obtaining antitrust clearance from the U.S. government. Financial terms were not disclosed.
About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, EA posted revenues of $2.96 billion for fiscal 2004. The company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers and the Internet. In 2003, EA had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. Electronic Arts markets its products under three brand names: EA SPORTS(TM), EA GAMES(TM) and EA SPORTS BIG(TM). EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.
 
P

pilonv1

Member
I remember when Ubisoft were the glowing hope at killing the EA straglehold on the market. Now it's down to Take Two wanting revenge. The one console future is coming, only it's EA.
 
N

norinrad21

Banned
evil.jpg


The END......
 
T

thorns

Banned
someone has to put EA down. Take two has been more or less a one hit wonder, my hope is for activision to catch them, they have brilliant management, but EA is so far ahead of everybody else right now that it's scary.

Too bad for ubi:( they produced excellent quality games.
 
G

Gaia Theory

Member
EA is starting to realize that they will only survive off of the success of other companies games, and thus, have started to purchase stakes in other companies.

EA is announcing too much, too often about their world take over scheme. I thought world take over schemes were suppose to be secret.
 
D

drohne

hyperbolically metafictive
seems eternities ago that ubisoft was a fanboy darling, producing original, artful games like rayman, beyond good and evil, and sands of time. now that they've transitioned to purveying nakedly commercial pap full time, an ea tie-up makes pefect sense.
 
P

psycho_snake

I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
Crap.

Ubisoft are really the only american developer I liked. PoP was amazing and PoP2 looks even better (Hopefully getting it soon) The splinter cell series is good, Beyong Good and Evil was good. They were overall a very good developer. EA cant be stopped, you can tell that everything is going downhill in gaming, which is a shame consodering the potential there is in the market. MS is really the only NA company that can stop them.
 
T

Tonche

Member
Ubisoft is European, not American.

And I fear for Nintendo, Sony & MS if EA ever puts a console out there. Especially if Ubisoft games would be exclusive as well.
 
R

Rhindle

Member
acklame said:
perhaps they are planning for the eventual takeover, hostile or not...
Click to expand...
This sounds like a defensive move, i.e. to prevent someone else from bidding for Ubisoft.

That having been said: if they decided they did want Ubisoft, they could buy it for less than they paid for their NFL license.
 
L

lexi

Banned
Look, The owner of said Ubisoft shares shopped around to several different publishers, EA simply had the highest bid!
 
C

ChrisReid

Member
Well.. look on the bright side.. Ubisoft has an Austin studio (Wolfpack). Maybe they could hire some of the old Origin people and make a new Wing Commander game now.
 
L

Lhadatt

Member
THE FUTURE OF THE GAMING INDUSTRY:

clones.jpg


BOMB BOMB

Seriously. I've had a theory for maybe the past six months that we're due another gaming crash. Just look at all the generic crap being shoveled out now -- the market can't sustain this.

This November was just a sample. I suspect we'll see more carnage going into next gen if the industry doesn't change the ways it does business.
 
ManaByte

ManaByte

Member
ChrisReid said:
Well.. look on the bright side.. Ubisoft has an Austin studio (Wolfpack). Maybe they could hire some of the old Origin people and make a new Wing Commander game now.
Click to expand...

Dunno how much is left. Most went to Digital Anvil, and those who didn't filtered to Warthog and others (a lot of the Privateer people) worked on Jump to Lightspeed.
 
M

Mike Works

Member
Look at all the crap being shoveled out these days? We have three active consoles and (soon) three active handhelds, and yet all of the shovelware games COMBINED released wouldn't match the NES in it's glory days.
 
C

Coen

Member
lockii said:
Look, The owner of said Ubisoft shares shopped around to several different publishers, EA simply had the highest bid!
Click to expand...

Damn, the owner was a Dutchmen, just like me. I feel ashamed. :(

Dear John, why did you have to sell it to EA! You don't need the money, couldn't you have consulted with me about this first?
 
I

impirius

Member
Lhadatt said:
Seriously. I've had a theory for maybe the past six months that we're due another gaming crash. Just look at all the generic crap being shoveled out now -- the market can't sustain this.

This November was just a sample. I suspect we'll see more carnage going into next gen if the industry doesn't change the ways it does business.
Click to expand...
I'd say that there's a better "good stuff" to "shovelware" ratio now than there was in the 8-bit days... maybe even in the 16-bit days. And look at the PS1; it was an astounding success, and I'd rather play with a yo-yo than slog through something from the bottom 75% of its library.
 
element

element

Member
Coen said:
Damn, the owner was a Dutchmen, just like me. I feel ashamed. :(

Dear John, why did you have to sell it to EA! You don't need the money, couldn't you have consulted with me about this first?
Click to expand...
He had to sell his shares of Manchester United a while ago, perhaps he is trying to get them back.
 
ManaByte

ManaByte

Member
And everyone predicting a crash doesn't remember what caused the original crash in the first place.

Companies are stupid enough to produce more copies of a shitty game than they have consoles in the market.
 
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