EA looking to sell or merge

09:37 PM

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.”

But it was apparently a deal with NBCUniversal that got the farthest along. According to Beyers, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was looking to spin off the entertainment conglomerate into a separate entity with EA, with one version of the deal leaving current EA CEO Andrew Wilson in charge of the new mega-business. Negotiations eventually fell apart over price, however.

We don’t comment on rumors and speculation relating to M&A,” EA spokesperson John Reseburg told Kotaku in a statement. “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.”

Over the past year there’s been a frenzy of video game studio acquisitions, one that was sent into overdrive in January after Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two announced it was buying Zynga for $12.7 billion and Microsoft announced it was planning to buy Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. Sony followed weeks later with a deal to buy the studio behind Destiny 2, Bungie, for $3.6 billion, a price some analysts considered massively inflated and possibly a sign of a new mad rush to consolidate among the gaming industry’s biggest players.

In an earnings call in February, Andrew Wilson implied the company was focused on making acquisitions rather than being acquired. As evidence, EA spent $5 billion over the last year buying up studios to increase its size. But now it appears the publisher has been aggressively pursuing other ways of scaling up. Beyers reports that Wilson approached Disney as recently as March “in pursuit of what sources described as ‘a more meaningful relationship’ than licensing deals.”

This news comes as EA has lost or abandoned some of its biggest existing licensing deals. While the publisher recently revealed three new Star Wars games currently in production, including a new Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order that’s rumored to release early in 2023, its exclusivity deal with Disney for the Star Wars license isn’t going to be renewed when it expires in 2023. That’s allowed competitors like Quantic Dream and Ubisoft to announce their own big Star Wars projects. EA also revealed last week that it’s ending its similar 10-year exclusivity deal with FIFA, and beginning in 2023 will rebrand its blockbuster soccer franchise EA Sports FC.

Whatever EA’s future holds, one big concern with consolidation is how it will ultimately impact employees at these companies. Even as EA’s reported another profitable year, Kotaku recently learned that an estimated 200 customer service staff are being laid off. According to four of the impacted employees, their work is being outsourced to cheaper third-party vendors in Romania and India.

Report: EA looking to sell or merge: https://t.co/xvPq7MXsFp pic.twitter.com/9aar1LbwVq
— Kotaku (@Kotaku) May 20, 2022

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(FYI) Comcast wants to merge with EA

"[Comcast CEO Brian] Roberts approached Electronic Arts C.E.O. Andrew Wilson with a proposal to spin off NBCUniversal and merge the media and gaming giants, four sources with knowledge of the proposal told me" https://t.co/aBTAGrHItP pic.twitter.com/Rsd7mV5a9K
— Idle SlothðŸ’™ðŸ’› (@IdleSloth84) May 20, 2022

;t=CY1S-lbUL5gHs-ych4FUMQ

They must want a lot of money because Comcast/Universal tried but wasn't willing to pay what EA was asking

As a MS guy, EA was the dream buy instead of Activision Blizzard King

The FTC would definitely tell MS to eat a d*ck if they tried to buy EA right after the ABK deal closes

But I always say...MS buying these big gaming companies would be better for the industry than Tencent, Saudi Arabia or some sh*t

Please sell EA another company needs to come in a do a switch on Maddens engine, game has been the same for years with 2-3 upgrades each year.

EA will prolly microtransaction their own sale to someone

MarkNelson0052 said

Please sell EA another company needs to come in a do a switch on Maddens engine, game has been the same for years with 2-3 upgrades each year.

As much as this would benefit the consumers - there is little need for them to do this when there is no competition.

The fact that there is no competition in nba and nfl games is crazy

Naw fyck that.

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Microsoft is the only one willing to buy meaning a big discount

10:34 PM

5ive04our said

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I Agreed. EA should DEFINITELY sell. Nintendo doesn't play DAT, PERIOD'T

Whatever CEO allowed that battlefield 2042 to release should be fired and never allowed control of a gaming publisher again. Absolutely pathetic

fu*k ea where the fu*k is the boxing games??

fu*k EA eternal.

Ea isnt worth buying. They have mostly Licensed Ip’s and make money from Ultimate team which could dry up at any time.

2k sports need to buy them out

11:31 PM

Commission said

2k sports need to buy them out

fu*k both of these companies, that would just make it worse. 2k don't give a damn about making the game better since they introduced VC, all they care about is making money off the kids and sheep who keep feeding them on all the extra sh*t that they buy for their My players or Myteams. EA is in the same boat with Madden as well, and now they k*lled off Fifa for good to top it off. I legit bought every NBA 2K game since 2k8, this was the first year I didn't. I just couldn't buy the same game again. I miss the times when these companies actually cared about making the product better each and every year. I know that was never EA's play, but 2k joined them basically. 2k did it with NBA slowly but surely, especially when Live died. EA did it with Madden and Fifa. The only decent game that EA made that was consistently good was NHL, and lets be real most of us won't buy that.

The only legit sports game that never fell off is MLB The Show which is made by Sony/ Playstation Studios. I'm not even a baseball head like that, but that sh*t is GOATed.

I forgot to say as well fu*k Ronnie 2k

Nosbig said

Whatever CEO allowed that battlefield 2042 to release should be fired and never allowed control of a gaming publisher again. Absolutely pathetic

Deadass. I was anticipating the fu*k outta that game, for them to drop that bullsh*t. I swear I played it once, and never played again. A year or so ago, you couldn't have told me that 2042 wouldn't blow COD out of the water. Such a disappointment smh

Apple

Toast2DaKing said

Deadass. I was anticipating the fu*k outta that game, for them to drop that bullsh*t. I swear I played it once, and never played again. A year or so ago, you couldn't have told me that 2042 wouldn't blow COD out of the water. Such a disappointment smh

I still play bf4 , game is goated , and then tbey drop that fu*king trash. Buddy should have had to clean his desk out , bf2042 and losing fifa. I'll never get another bf2042

Ea is so trash as a business , all that money no creativity

Tonero said

Ea is so trash as a business , all that money no creativity

Exactly what they wanted

The casual market... spend all the money, do the least complaining and it requires the least amount of work.

Theyve been saying this since around 2009/2010

They abandoned their hardcore fanbase for money a decade ago

Loco Poe said

fu*k both of these companies, that would just make it worse. 2k don't give a damn about making the game better since they introduced VC, all they care about is making money off the kids and sheep who keep feeding them on all the extra sh*t that they buy for their My players or Myteams. EA is in the same boat with Madden as well, and now they k*lled off Fifa for good to top it off. I legit bought every NBA 2K game since 2k8, this was the first year I didn't. I just couldn't buy the same game again. I miss the times when these companies actually cared about making the product better each and every year. I know that was never EA's play, but 2k joined them basically. 2k did it with NBA slowly but surely, especially when Live died. EA did it with Madden and Fifa. The only decent game that EA made that was consistently good was NHL, and lets be real most of us won't buy that.

The only legit sports game that never fell off is MLB The Show which is made by Sony/ Playstation Studios. I'm not even a baseball head like that, but that sh*t is GOATed.

I forgot to say as well fu*k Ronnie 2k

Man The Show has been the same for bout 5 years now too

Whoever buys it needs to bring back the streets and boxing series. That's EA bread and butter, maybe even an ea streets boxing game

Give Mass Effect to Platinum Games

EA is literally fu*king us all up by not allowing anyone else to make another NFL video game.

Madden is unplayable.

By the time we get a football game, most of us will be old with a family.

I wish they'd allow these studios to go independent and so companies can help them create games properly rather than just trying to scrape by with something that can be barely considered a game for the sake of a dollar.