Rumor: Electronic Arts Is For Sale

[remmus]

lol, if true, i think i will dance in public
these greedy money suckers should go. but then i ask my self, what happens to the games that require origin to play? will they keep it? what kind of changes will come if a new company will buy them?
i also hope it will be valve. then i will ask a hacker so i can send gabe a personal message what a good choice he has made

wait...people actually buy games that require Origin?

 

[Gardenia]

This could be an amazing opportunity. Smart money bets on this equity firm selling off ever IP EA owns. Every game franchise EA has been whoring to death could become the property of a publisher or developer that might actually do something of value with it. Most of them will go to Konami, Activision, Ubisoft, etc, which is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, but a few will get spread around.

...could it be?

...could it finally happen?

...System Shock 3...

I am now officially salivating.

That would be...

Yes.

Just. Yes.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Are there any game companies that could actually afford to buy them?
It seems like the whole industry is pressed for cash.

It probably wouldn't be good if a company with absolutely no knowledge of making games were to purchase EA.

 

[TheSapphireKnight]

Sigh, I wish someone would buy EA and completely demolish the management structure and puts in place people who know what they are doing.

It doesn't take a gamer to realise when you have shitty management

 

[Triaed]

Great! I should buy a few hundred shares and put them right next to my Facebook ones! [/sarcasm]

 

[Metalrocks]

lol, if true, i think i will dance in public
these greedy money suckers should go. but then i ask my self, what happens to the games that require origin to play? will they keep it? what kind of changes will come if a new company will buy them?
i also hope it will be valve. then i will ask a hacker so i can send gabe a personal message what a good choice he has made

wait...people actually buy games that require Origin?

im just a huge ME fan, and i just coulndt resist to get it. also later on BF3, which i actually do enjoy a lot. and i have to admit, i dint had a single problem with origin. but still doesnt change my mind that i hate ?A.

 

[geizr]

This is just a rumor and one that seems far-fetched, at the moment; so, I'll take it with a mountain of salt (oh god! Saline over-dose...Aaaugh!). However, it were true, in my mind it suggests two primary things: 1) mainstream triple-A game-development may not be sustainable as a sole source of revenue due to high costs coupled with low or difficult to guarantee success-rates, and 2) you can only shit on your market just so long before there are repercussions.

 

[teh_Canape]

Doesn't matter. They couldn't possibly make EA even worse, could they?

Don't jinx it, seriously. THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY!

>EA gets bought by LJN
where is your god now

 

[felixader]

I remember between the end of 2008 and 2009. I LOVED this company and most of it's output. Sigh...

 

[SnakeoilSage]

Damn, and I left my millions of dollars in my other coat. In an alternate reality.

 

[4RM3D]

After years of struggling and with the mainstream videogame industry continuing to decline

The mainstream videogame industry is in decline? Really? Because I thought quite the opposite. I do see a few companies struggling, like Zynga, but that's their own fault.

...but with EA's share price sliding from just over $25 in November 2011 to a low of under $11 in July, the company is apparently now at the point where it's entertaining the possibility of an acquisition.

Soon, very soon... A new hope rises. EA is already FUBAR, so I can only see good things from a takeover.

 

[WanderingFool]

Not likely to happen, but if someone was to buyout EA, I would like to see the bigger developers that are part of EA get seperated and formed back into their own studios.

 

[Monsterfurby]

Can someone ask some gaming celebrity (Vin Diesel comes to mind) if they have come loose change lying around?

 

[Living Contradiction]

The only reason to buy EA now would be to cannibalise it for the parts that are still worth something and dump the rest. The name itself can't be worth a damn now.

Not quite. The book value for EA is sitting at just over eight bucks and the stock price, thanks to the buyout rumour, has been bouncing around the fourteen dollar mark. So if someone buys EA, strips it down, and sells what's left, they're going to lose nearly half the cash they plunk down for it.

Also, believe it or not, if a company does buy EA, just over a billion dollars of EA's value is goodwill. That is to say, "keep this business going and it's worth this much more".

Mind you, the folks who are looking at eating EA are the same ones that ate Nabisco, Toys 'R Us, and Safeway, so if the buyout did happen, chances are the best possible scenario will occur: all the upper management is fired, the projects that are considered lucretive are kept alive, and nearly all advertising goes away.

Stupid EA ads stop, games worth playing become the focus of the company, and John Riccitiello and his band of clueless wonders are kicked out. I could live with that.

 

[bafrali]

Wish Valve did it. It would only cost a lunch money for Gabe.

Whoever does it, they are doomed.

Captcha: butler did it...

 

[esperandote]

i thought the word 'karma' was going to be thrown around a little more in this thread

 

[A Satanic Panda]

The only other game company that has the money the buy EA is Valve, and maybe Bandai-Namco. Hell, Valve could buy EA 3 times over and still be stable enough to make HL3 within the next century.

 

[FalloutJack]

Doesn't matter. They couldn't possibly make EA even worse, could they?

Had a drugstore taken over by a more successful drugstore before. Thrift Drug bought out Eckerd, except that they made a deal that retained the title (Eckerd) and retained same management staff in said buy-out. As a result, same stupid store practices that ran it into the ground in the first place were still done.

It could happen here.

 

[Macgyvercas]

QUICK! Someone Call Warren Buffet!

...And ask him to give Gabe Newell a loan!

Gabe could do that on his own. He doesn't need a loan.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

That would be amazing. It would also mean Bioware (without EA) and Bethesda together...good god! 0_0

TOO MUCH GOOD THINGS.

NOT POSSIBLE!

OT: this would be awesome if someone who doesn't have a pipe the size of a space shuttle rammed up their ass "acquired" EA, preferably someone who is a gaming enthusiast