There are rumors that Electronic Arts is actively looking for a potential buyer or the opportunity to merge, and there are negotiations with Apple. Amazon and Disney are also among the potential buyers. This is reported by 9To5Mac with reference to Puck.
According to them, the idea of buyout or merger arose after earlier this year Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard for $68 billion. Shortly afterwards, Sony bought Bungie for $3.6 billion. Before that there was an agreement between Take-Two Interactive and Zynga for $12.7 billion. After that, investors started talking about the attractiveness of the gaming market and a possible new wave of mergers in 2022.
EA does not seem to mind the merger if Andrew Wilson remains CEO of the merged company. Wilson has been CEO of Electronic Arts since September 2013. In August 2017, he also became a member of Intel’s board of directors.
Interestingly, the roots of Electronic Arts come from Apple. Trip Hawkins was Apple’s director of strategy and marketing when he left the company in 1982 to form EA.
EA spokesman John Reseburg said the company would not comment on any “rumors and speculation related to M&A.”We are proud to be operating from a position of strength and growth, with a portfolio of amazing games, built around powerful IP, made by incredibly talented teams, and a network of more than half a billion players. We see a very bright future ahead,” Reseburg added.
Apple is also not commenting on a potential deal with Electronic Arts.
Electronic Arts itself does not mind buying some developers. In 2021 alone, the publisher acquired four major gaming studios – Codemasters, Glu Mobile, Metalhead Software and Playdemic, spending about $5 billion.
But some recent EA releases have shown very poor results. Battlefield 2042 failed, Codemasters’ highly-hoped Grid Legends had a bad start and lost all players in a month , the publisher refused to renew FIFA license. In addition, the future of the series Need for Speed, Dragon Age, Mass Effect is worrying fans. It looks like EA is really not in the best shape.
On the other hand, Apple is focusing on mobile gaming and promoting its own Apple Arcade service. What exactly will give the Cupertino company access to the console and PC market is a bit unclear.
But let’s see, such rumors do not arise out of nowhere. EA’s market capitalization right now is $37.62 billion, which is likely to be less than Microsoft/Activision Blizzard. Who do you bet on? Apple, Amazon, or Disney?
Loading comments …