Disney, Amazon and Apple in line to buy EA claim rumours
EA may end up being the next big video game acquisition, although one potential deal with NBCUniversal already seems to have fallen through.
In a few years’ time the video games industry will probably look very different to the way it does today, with the consolidation that began with Microsoft’s purchase of Bethesda likely to end with all of today’s big name publishers either being acquired or merging with even larger companies.
Together with Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts are regarded as the biggest third party publisher in the West but they’re still minnows compared to the likes of Apple, Amazon, Disney, and NBCUniversal, all of which are supposedly interested in either acquiring or merging with EA.
The sudden bidding war isn’t a result of those companies trying to follow Microsoft’s lead though, but because EA is ‘pursuing a sale’ and approaching them.
Especially after the announcement of the Activision Blizzard acquisition (which is still yet to go through) video game publishers suddenly became the fashionable, must-have company for giant-sized multinationals, and so EA CEO Andrew Wilson has been taking advantage of this by opening talks with a number of potential buyers.
It’s unclear exactly how interested some of the other companies are but supposedly talks with American media giant NBCUniversal have progressed the furthest.
In theory, this would involve the TV and movie conglomerate spinning off a separate company, which would then merge with EA. Although supposedly talks have currently broken down over the question of price.
‘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
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