‘EA wants to buy itself and almost succeeded at NBCUniversal’

Game publisher Electronic Arts is reportedly looking for a party to take over the company. EA is said to have held talks with Apple, Disney, Amazon and NBCUniversal. To date, no agreement has been concluded behind the scenes.

In particular, the talks with NBCUniversal are said to have reached an advanced stage, before failing after all. According to an report by American journalist Dylan Byers van Puck, who cites sources ‘with knowledge of those conversations’. EA CEO Andrew Wilson would have the desire to remain CEO of EA under new ownership, which NBCUniversal would not have opposed. Negotiations are said to have stalled due to disagreements about ‘price and structure’.

EA would think the time was right because of the many acquisitions that have recently taken place in the gaming landscape. Those are deals like Take-Two, which is acquiring Zynga for $12.7 billion, Microsoft, which is buying Activision for $69 billion, and Sony, which will become the new owner of Bungie for $3.6 billion.

Exactly what the motivation is for EA to let itself be acquired rather than remain independent is not entirely clear. What is known is that the market value of the company has fallen in the past two years from more than $ 40 billion two years ago to around $ 36 billion today. In addition, EA will no longer have an exclusive license to Star Wars and will also release the FIFA name in future football games. In addition, it admitted that the reception of Battlefield 2042 was ‘disappointing’. Before that, there was Anthem, in which EA gave up hope.

Officially, EA doesn’t acknowledge any of the story. The company told Puck that it is “not responding to rumors and speculation surrounding mergers and acquisitions.” The game publisher also says that it sees a ‘bright future’ on the basis of, among other things, its portfolio. It also spent $5 billion last year on the acquisitions of Codemasters, Glu Mobile and Playdemic.

Well-known Electronic Arts franchises include Battlefield, Apex Legends, The Sims, FIFA, Mass Effect, Titanfall, Command & Conquer, Dead Space, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. The company was founded in 1982 and is located in Redwood City, near San Francisco.

Battlefield 2042