EA reportedly discussed an acquisition with Amazon, Apple, and Disney
by Adam Fitch
·
Updated
Electronic Arts, also widely known as EA, has reportedly been entertaining conversations with major companies surrounding a potential merger or acquisition.
The report: EA executives may be looking to cash out.
- A report from Puck states that EA's CEO Andrew Wilson held negotiations with NBCUniversal regarding a potential merger for the two companies, though it didn't work out.
- The potential merger would have given NBCUniversal a major presentence in gaming and enabled opportunities for crossovers between the company's sports rights and EA's sports-based franchises, such as Madden.
- The report later states that Wilson entertained conversations with major companies like Apple, Amazon, and Disney regarding a potential sale. Some sources claim that the company is "persistent in pursuing a sale" while others say that the games company is largely interested in a merger instead.
A wider lens: EA's desire to sell or merge with another company makes a lot of sense considering the current games landscape.
- Another major developer in Ubisoft is rumored to be active in the marketplace with several major players interested in taking over. Ubisoft's CEO denied such rumblings in the company's recent earnings call, however.
- Meanwhile, several major deals have indeed been closed in 2022 already. Take-Two Interactive has acquired Zynga for $12.7B, Microsoft is looking to buy Activision Blizzard for almost $69B, ESL and FACEIT are now under ownership of Savvy Gaming Group following a $1.5B deal, and Sony is set to acquire Halo creator Bungie for $3.6B.
- EA recently laid off up to 100 employees following the loss of the company's license with FIFA for its popular football-based video game, according to Kotaku. Despite that hit to the company's business, it has 375 job listings open on Hitmarker at the time of writing.
