The video game market is consolidating like never before, and Electronic Arts is creeping up like everyone else. That Battlefield and FIFA The manufacturer recently pursued a merger with NBCUniversal and also held potential acquisition negotiations with Disney, Apple and other companies, according to a new report by Puck. Although a deal is not currently underway, it does not sound like EA is planning to give up at some point.
“In recent years, as media companies have become more interested in the fast-growing gaming industry, Wilson and Electronic Arts have held talks with a variety of potential suitors, including Disney, Apple and Amazon, sources with knowledge of these talks told me. Wrote Puck‘s veteran media reporter, Dylan Beyers. “Several sources familiar with these conversations say that EA has been persistent in pursuing a sale and has only become more courageous in the wake of the Microsoft-Activision agreement. Others say that EA is primarily interested in a merger scheme,” which will allow Wilson to remain CEO of the combined company. “
But it was apparently an agreement with NBCUniversal that came the furthest. According to Beyers, Comcast’s CEO Brian Roberts sought to separate the entertainment conglomerate into a separate entity with EA, with a version of the agreement leaving the current EA CEO Andrew Wilson responsible for the new mega business. However, negotiations eventually fell apart over the price.
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“We are not commenting on rumors or speculation regarding M&A,” said EA spokesman John Reseburg Kotaku in a statement. “We are proud to operate from a position of strength and growth, with a portfolio of fantastic games, built around powerful IPs, made up of incredibly talented teams and a network of more than half a billion players. We see a very bright future ahead. “
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Over the past year, there has been a frenzy with the acquisition of video game studios, one that was sent into overdrive in January after Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two announced that they would buy Zynga for $ 12.7 billion and Microsoft announced that they were planning to buy Call of Duty producer Activision Blizzard for $ 69 billion. Sony followed weeks later with an agreement to buy the studio behind Fate 2Bungie, for $ 3.6 billiona price that some analysts saw as massively inflated and possibly a sign of a new insane rush to consolidate among the gaming industry’s biggest players.
In a earnings call in February, Andrew Wilson indicated that the company was focused on making acquisitions rather than being acquired. As proof, EA spent 5 billion over the past year acquired studios to increase the size. But now it seems that the publisher has aggressively pursued other ways of upscaling. Beyers reports that Wilson approached Disney as late as March “in pursuit of what sources described as ‘a more meaningful relationship’ than licensing agreements.”
This news comes as EA has lost or abandoned some of its largest existing licensing agreements. While the publisher recently revealed three new Star wars games in production at the momentincluding a new one Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order it is rumors released early in 2023its exclusivity agreement with Disney for Star wars The license will not be renewed when it expires in 2023. It has allowed competitors such as Quantic Dream and Ubisoft to announce their own major Star wars projects. EA also revealed last week that it is ending its similar 10-year exclusivity agreement with FIFA, starting in 2023 rebrand its blockbuster football franchise EA Sports FC.
Whatever the future of EA, a major concern with consolidation is how it will ultimately affect the employees of these companies. Although EA reported another profitable year, Kotaku recently learned that an estimated 200 customer service employees are laid off. According to four of the affected employees, their work is being outsourced to cheaper third-party suppliers in Romania and India.
Comcast, Disney and Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.