Image: Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts is looking to sell or merge, but no buyers have popped up just yet.
It looks like Electronic Arts is shaping up to be the next major games publisher to get sold. According to a recent report from Puck, the company almost merged with NBCUniversal before talks fell through. It also pursued acquisitions with multimedia companies like Disney and Apple, but no deals have been finalised just yet.
The games industry has grown increasingly consolidated in recent years, with major companies not only swooping in to add smaller game developers to their family, but larger publishers as well. Just last year, two of the biggest games acquisitions of all time occurred: Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, and Take-Two Interactive bought Zynga for $12.7 billion. Most recently, Sony bought Destiny 2 developer Bungie for $3.6 billion.
Electronic Arts seems next in line for a big acquisition, but its buyer’s identity remains a mystery for now. The company seems pretty intent on making it happen, however. Puck writes, “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.”
In other words, the Microsoft-Activision buyout has only spurned more companies towards making bigger and bigger acquisition deals. EA only wants to an acquisition if it allows their current CEO Andrew Wilson to remain in charge. With all these acquisitions and mergers becoming rampant in the games industry, it looks like no company wants to be left behind as their peers grow larger and more fearsome than ever.
A Disney-owned Electronic Arts, though? One wonders what that would even mean for both companies. Disney has had a relationship with EA in the past, when both companies signed an exclusivity deal regarding Star Wars games. That deal has since expired, and now we’re getting loads of Star Wars games from publishers besides EA. EA still has a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in the works though, which will reportedly launch early next year.