Rumor: Electronic Arts Is For Sale

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Rumor: Electronic Arts Is For Sale


Electronic Arts is reportedly considering an acquisition offer.

After years of struggling and with the mainstream videogame industry continuing to decline, publishing giant Electronic Arts is now rumored to be considering a buyout offer made by private equity firms KKR and Providence Equity Partners. Nothing definite is on the table at this point, with one source describing the discussions as "early days," 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.

"They've made it known they'd do a deal at $20 a share," another source said.

That mark is substantially less than the $26 per share EA offered to acquire Take-Two [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/81720-EA-Bids-for-Take-Two] Interactive back in the heady days of early 2008, when its stock was still riding high at over $55. Take-Two rejected that offer, saying it undervalued the company, and struggled mightily and ultimately successfully against the acquisition.


EA's share price has enjoyed a significant bounce over the past month, climbing from $10.95 on July 26 to $14.18 at the time of writing, although that's still a far cry from its 2007 peak of over $61. Despite EA's troubles and the predicted continuing decline of the conventional game industry, analyst Michael Pachter predicted that the company's share price would more than double over the next 12 months, but whether that climb would be driven by an acquisition or would happen regardless of EA's ownership situation wasn't made clear.

Source: New York Post [http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/mad_for_madden_3lyqSl04ZEpZeO9Zmh81GI]



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Fappy

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Let's hope something good can come of this. EA really needs to change. I think we can all agree on that.
 

Prof.Beany

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Oh man thats bad...
I mean if it was another publisher/dev studio Id be all for it, but an equity firm?
They exist solely to make money, this really cant be good...
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Prof.Beany said:
Oh man thats bad...
I mean if it was another publisher/dev studio Id be all for it, but an equity firm?
They exist solely to make money, this really cant be good...
To be fair, ea exists solely to make money also.
 

SonicWaffle

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rofltehcat said:
Doesn't matter. They couldn't possibly make EA even worse, could they?
Depends if they rebrand the company as Electronic Arts Videogames & Tween Pop ltd
 

Quiotu

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If it makes the acquisition any more sense, Providence Equity Partners is invested in ZeniMax Media... the parent company of Bethesda, id, and Arkane amongst others.
 

snagli

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FelixG said:
DVS BSTrD said:
Someone Call Warren Buffet!

...And ask him to give Gabe Newell a loan!
man if Valve bought EA...

..that would be pure awesome.
Though Gabe would probably convert all titles with 3's in them to stuff like Battlefield 2: Episode 2.

Oh, and Origin will probably be eaten by Steam, which is good I guess.
 

Sixcess

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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.
 

NinjaDeathSlap

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Feb 20, 2011
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Prof.Beany said:
Oh man thats bad...
I mean if it was another publisher/dev studio Id be all for it, but an equity firm?
They exist solely to make money, this really cant be good...
The only difference I can see is that if this takeover goes through the people who exist solely to make money will be people who actually know how to make money. The current brass of EA, on the other hand, clearly has no idea.
 

Quiotu

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snagli said:
Quiotu said:
If it makes the acquisition any more sense, Providence Equity Partners is invested in ZeniMax Media... the parent company of Bethesda, id, and Arkane amongst others.
Though Gabe would probably convert all titles with 3's in them to stuff like Battlefield 2: Episode 2.

Oh, and Origin will probably be eaten by Steam, which is good I guess.
ZeniMax doesn't own Valve... not sure where you're getting that from.