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Kotaku: EA Looking To Sell Or Merge

Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member
Follow up from this, EA is reportedly still looking to buyers or merging.



The video game market is consolidating like never before, and Electronic Arts is scrambling like everyone else. The Battlefield and FIFA maker recently pursued a merger with NBCUniversal, and also held potential acquisition talks with Disney, Apple, and other companies, according to a new report by Puck. While a deal isn’t currently in the works, it doesn’t sound like EA plans to give up anytime soon.

“In recent years, as media companies have taken greater interest in the rapidly growing gaming industry, Wilson and Electronic Arts have held talks with a number of different potential suitors, including Disney, Apple and Amazon, sources with knowledge of those talks told me,” wrote Puck’s veteran media reporter, Dylan Beyers. “Several sources familiar with these talks say EA has been persistent in pursuing a sale, and has only grown more emboldened in the wake of the Microsoft-Activision deal. Others say that EA is primarily interested in a merger arrangement that would allow Wilson to remain as chief executive of the combined company.”
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Make your bets for who is going to acquire EA.
 
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Jaybe

Jaybe

Member
“Others say that EA is primarily interested in a merger arrangement that would allow Wilson to remain as chief executive of the combined company.”
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😂… not happening if that’s the condition. He’ll probably be tossed and then the company sold outright. I’m sure MSFT would have wanted to buy them, but I can see why they balked if Wilson was trying to do some power play.
 
yurinka

yurinka

Member
If MS wouldn't be busy with Activision I'd see them buying EA. I could see Tencent or the Saudis buying them, or a merge with Take 2.

I think Amazon isn't interested on big gaming acquisitions or to pay the 30% of the console and mobile revenue to their platform holders. Because other than that is the one who I'd see buying EA.

Disney, Apple, Facebook or Sony, or even Nintendo wouldn't be interested on them. Ubisoft wants to remain independent (Wilson wouldn't be CEO in a merge), and they may be too big for Embracer.
 
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Ghost of Caelid

Ghost of Caelid

Banned
yurinka said:
If MS wouldn't be busy with Activision I'd see them buying EA. I could see Tencent or the Saudis buying them, or a merge with Take 2.

I think Amazon isn't interested on big gaming acquisitions or to pay the 30% of the console and mobile revenue to their platform holders. Because other than that is the one who I'd see buying EA.

Disney, Apple, Facebook or Sony wouldn't be interested on them.
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Our joke of an FTC wouldn't do anything if they bought them. MS already is currently a monopoly outside of gaming...they can use the "theres so much competition" excuse for the media and pay off regulators behind the scenes with speaking gigs and shit.
 
yurinka

yurinka

Member
Ghost of Johto said:
Our joke of an FTC wouldn't do anything if they bought them. MS already is currently a monopoly outside of gaming...they can use the "theres so much competition" excuse for the media and pay off regulators behind the scenes with speaking gigs and shit.
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I think MS won't have any issue buying ABK, and once completed they could go to try buying EA (or Take 2) next. EA would be still far from having anything close to monopoly in gaming, or even becoming top 1. In several areas still wouldn't be top 1 in gaming.
 
remember_spinal

remember_spinal

Banned
Batiman said:
if I were MS or Sony I’d buy some of their IP if possible.
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I doubt they would sell off IP a la carte before looking for a buyout.

I doubt a platform holder will acquire them. Look at the companies they are in negotiations wiht, Apple, Disney, Comcast….The only people that would have been able to afford them is Microsoft and they aren’t gonna get them now.

If microsoft didn’t completely drop the ball last gen BioWare would have been a great purchase for them.
 
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EDMIX

EDMIX

Member
If we didn't get that megaton of Comcast trying to merge with them, I would have just assumed Sony.

MS might be counted out based on them buying up 2 publishers, Sony would make sense with EA having lots of single player IP, Dead Space, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Mirror's Edge, Titanfall, Medal Of Honor, NFS, Burnout and of course their MP stuff with APEX, Battlefield, (same with Titanfall) Madden etc.

Maybe its too expensive, maybe its too much issues with those teams for the price, they'd literally need to redo so much shit with management, maybe this is a case of "what have you done for me lately" as those IP have not faired well.

Before anyone jumps the gun, EA being bad at what they do is a great reason for someone else to fucking run those games instead folks. I'd rather have a publisher that knows what their doing with those IP. Maybe its just too much for even Sony to fix, regardless I think that Comcast merger is more likely and true at this point.

JohnnyFootball JohnnyFootball That could happen. We saw that with a few publishers that went out of business where it was just a free for all with IP going all over the place, Midway, THQ and a few others come to mind.

That almost happened to Capcom in 2014 as they were open to sell IP aka...the dark days lol
 
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Bo_Hazem

Bo_Hazem

Banned
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kingfey

kingfey

Banned
EDMIX said:
If we didn't get that megaton of Comcast trying to merge with them, I would have just assumed Sony.

MS might be counted out based on them buying up 2 publishers, Sony would make sense with EA having lots of single player IP, Dead Space, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Mirror's Edge, Titanfall, Medal Of Honor, NFS, Burnout and of course their MP stuff with APEX, Battlefield, (same with Titanfall) Madden etc.

Maybe its too expensive, maybe its too much issues with those teams for the price, they'd literally need to redo so much shit with management, maybe this is a case of "what have you done for me lately" as those IP have not faired well.

Before anyone jumps the gun, EA being bad at what they do is a great reason for someone else to fucking run those games instead folks. I'd rather have a publisher that knows what their doing with those IP. Maybe its just too much for even Sony to fix, regardless I think that Comcast merger is more likely and true at this point.

JohnnyFootball JohnnyFootball That could happen. We saw that with a few publishers that went out of business where it was just a free for all with IP going all over the place, Midway, THQ and a few others come to mind.

That almost happened to Capcom in 2014 as they were open to sell IP aka...the dark days lol
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Sony would be of the table in this purchase, if Square rumors are true.

Plus there is Capcom and other Japanese publishers. EA would be a waste of their time, like how MS is tied with Activision.
 
Abriael_GN

Abriael_GN

RSI Employee of the Year
The desperation to make up for that weekend traffic slump's always hilarious.

We got "insiders," we got rumors, and then we have Kotaku, which takes someone else's rumor and harps on it to try to make it juicier without actually adding anything of substance. Funnily, the original report basically says their "sources" tell them two entirely different things, making this even less credible.

And then we got the people on GAF, who quaff it all up like Koolaid 😂

Let's not forget that the track record on these rumormongers of all colors on this big acquisition thing isn't exactly stellar, since the ones they "leak" don't happen, and the ones that do happen don't leak.
 
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EDMIX

EDMIX

Member
kingfey said:
Sony would be of the table in this purchase, if Square rumors are true.

Plus there is Capcom and other Japanese publishers. EA would be a waste of their time, like how MS is tied with Activision.
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True.

For all we know Square is trimming that fat to make that purchase more attractive and EA and Ubisoft have been sending out feelers based on Sony entertaining purchases of them or something. For all we know Sony has been talking with those publishers for a while now since that Zenimax deal.

I think Capcom and Square are solid purchases. That would only make sense imho if Sony never goes after EA, those 2 fill in lots of gaps.
 
remember_spinal

remember_spinal

Banned
kingfey said:
Sony would be of the table in this purchase, if Square rumors are true.

Plus there is Capcom and other Japanese publishers. EA would be a waste of their time, like how MS is tied with Activision.
Click to expand...

They’re off the table for this purchase because Sony is not spending that amount of money, period.

I’m not even sure Sony could get approved for such a buy out- They are already the market leader. I see Amazon or Facebook (Meta) getting them before any other publisher
 
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E

elliot5

Member
BigBooper said:
So was Wilson a double agent or something? Come in and destroy anything good they have left and then sell the scraps to his patron company?
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EA has only gone up since he took over. He wants to remain CEO after a merger according to the docs, so this is him looking at a secondary avenue of growth for the company / shareholders rather than a desperation play.
 
lh032

lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
I think MS is not going to touch EA because of activision, would be very surprise if FTC allow this.

Maybe bigger corporation like Amazon and such....i wonder Tencent has any chances to acquire EA.
 
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Z

Z O N E

Member
Doesn't Take-Two want their own Football game or has interest to make one? My guess is they would probably be the ones to get EA just to have that EA FC game and the team who already know how to create football games.
 
Nautilus

Nautilus

Banned
Honestly, nobody will be interested in EA until they can prove they can make their FIFA-less football game work(sell) well.

Until that is proven, a lot of EA's potential worth is up in the air.So the earliest I can see this happening is 2024(This year game still has FIFA on its name, and only next years game will have the FC brand, and the game will need a few months to see if sells properly or not, hemce 2024).
 
Nautilus

Nautilus

Banned
Amiga said:
Little talent and IP remain at EA. Just tons of employees and liabilities.
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Battlefront, FIFA(Now FC), Dead Space which is set to be revived, Need for Speed, their deals with Disney for doing Star Wars games, Titanfall, that battle royal Titanfall spin off, and smaller IPs that could be revived or just remastered like Mirrors Edge.

Not to mention the manpower that they would bring alongaide a purchase.

EA has a SHITTON of IPs, tech, and personal that add value to it.
 
LordCBH

LordCBH

Member
Nautilus said:
Battlefront, FIFA(Now FC), Dead Space which is set to be revived, Need for Speed, their deals with Disney for doing Star Wars games, Titanfall, that battle royal Titanfall spin off, and smaller IPs that could be revived or just remastered like Mirrors Edge.

Not to mention the manpower that they would bring alongaide a purchase.

EA has a SHITTON of IPs, tech, and personal that add value to it.
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Yup. EA has a massive list of great classic and unused IP’s, in addition to the ones they actively use.
 
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kingfey

kingfey

Banned
remember_spinal said:
They’re off the table for this purchase because Sony is not spending that amount of money, period.

I’m not even sure Sony could get approved for such a buy out- They are already the market leader. I see Amazon or Facebook (Meta) getting them before any other publisher
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Sony isn't the market leader, as long as pc exist. Consoles represents 20% of gaming, while mobile and pc have like 80% of shares. Just like how Activision + bethesda doesn't make MS a monopoly.

Also remember that console hardware leader is only valid for each gen, before that leader gets toppled by another company.

So Sony can buy EA. But the problem with that, is that it would hinder them from buying other companies, until the deal is done. MS lost crystal dynamics because of Activision buy out. Those 3 studios would have helped MS, if it weren't for Activision.
 
kingfey

kingfey

Banned
EDMIX said:
True.

For all we know Square is trimming that fat to make that purchase more attractive and EA and Ubisoft have been sending out feelers based on Sony entertaining purchases of them or something. For all we know Sony has been talking with those publishers for a while now since that Zenimax deal.

I think Capcom and Square are solid purchases. That would only make sense imho if Sony never goes after EA, those 2 fill in lots of gaps.
Click to expand...
Sony needs to get the japanese market, so these studios makes more sense than EA.
 
remember_spinal

remember_spinal

Banned
kingfey said:
Sony isn't the market leader, as long as pc exist. Consoles represents 20% of gaming, while mobile and pc have like 80% of shares. Just like how Activision + bethesda doesn't make MS a monopoly.

Also remember that console hardware leader is only valid for each gen, before that leader gets toppled by another company.

So Sony can buy EA. But the problem with that, is that it would hinder them from buying other companies, until the deal is done. MS lost crystal dynamics because of Activision buy out. Those 3 studios would have helped MS, if it weren't for Activision.
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PC and Mobile aren’t individual companies though.
 
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