“EA wants to get itself taken over and almost succeeded at NBCUniversal”

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

The talks with NBCUniversal, in particular, would have reached an advanced stage, before failing anyway. According to a report by the American journalist Dylan Byers van Puck, who refers to sources ‘with knowledge of those conversations’. EA CEO Andrew Wilson would have wanted to remain CEO of EA under a new owner, which NBCUniversal would not have opposed. The negotiations are said to have stalled due to disagreements about ‘price and structure’.

EA would think the time is right because of the many acquisitions that have recently taken place in the gaming landscape. These are deals such as Take-Two, which acquires Zynga for $12.7 billion, Microsoft which buys Activision for $69 billion and Sony, which becomes the new owner of Bungie for $3.6 billion.

It is not entirely clear what the motivation is for EA to be taken over instead of remaining independent. It is known 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 now. In addition, EA will no longer have an exclusive license to Star Wars and will also release the FIFA name in future football games. It also admitted that the reception of Battlefield 2042 was ‘disappointing’. Before that there was Anthem, in which EA gave up hope.

Officially, EA is not acknowledging any of the story. The company reports to Puck that it “does not respond to rumors and speculation about mergers and acquisitions.” The game publisher also says that it sees a ‘bright future’ based on its portfolio, among other things. Last year, it also spent a total of $5 billion 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