Amazon buys EA
Amazon will buy EA according to a strange rumor that is circulating in these minutes, starting from sources that do not even seem to be excluded, with the official announcement that it should take place today, August 26. According to internal sources of the CNBC network, however, this rumor would not be credible and Amazon will not bid for Electronic Arts.Everything seems to start from sources close to GLHF, a company that deals with media, PR and communication all over the world. inside the gaming industry, with the information that was released by USA Today. Obviously there is no way to verify the matter for the moment, but as reportedly the source could be reliable, so we report the matter anyway.
Electronic Arts may be for sale and the candidates for the acquisition are not many , considering the size of the company: previously, Apple and Disney had also emerged among the possibilities, but it seems that the choice ultimately fell on Amazon.
Jeff Bezos' company actually has the capital to be able to lead to such an operation is completed relatively quickly, although the size of the acquisition will certainly require a thorough investigation by the FTC and regulators, as happened for Activision Blizzard by Microsoft.
Amazon, for its part, has been trying for some time to expand further in the gaming sector, with the creation of new development teams, the launch of the Amazon Luna cloud gaming platform and the production one of various games that are increasingly emerging on the market after a rather difficult start, such as New World and Lost Ark, which will also be joined by the MMO on the Lord of the Rings in development but whose health is somewhat uncertain.
According to the "sources" consulted, it seems that the official announcement is scheduled for today but there is not yet a precise timing in this regard, possible developments could therefore arrive shortly. The consequences of such an acquisition are not yet foreseeable, but since it is Amazon it is likely that the numerous EA games are destined to remain cross-platform, unless sensational developments are foreseen.
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Conflicting Reports Emerge Over Whether Amazon Is About To Buy EA
Apex Legends
RespawnThis morning, there’s a new report from GLHF over at USA Today where editor Kirk McKeand says his sources tell him that Amazon may be about to announce an acquisition of Electronic Arts (EA) as early as today.
(Update 8:11 AM): I just saw a CNBC segment where they said that according to their sources, this deal is not happening, according to “people who would know,” dismissing the McKeand/GLHF report and mocking its Swedish origins, for some reason (GLHF is based in Stockholm). EA stock has now dropped from 14% gains in pre-market to 2% gains).
Original article follows:
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What may have been previously unthinkable in the gaming industry is now less so in the age of mega-acquisitions like Microsoft’s $70 billion purchase of Activision, and $7.5 billion of Bethesda before that. Embracer Group has been scooping up studios and Sony has attempted to keep up with big purchases like Bungie. But the Amazon news is different because Amazon is well, Amazon.
This rumor, if it pans out, would reflect many months of other rumors where EA was reportedly looking to sell, and Amazon was looking to buy (along with Disney, Apple, Meta and other tech/media players). EA, with its $35 billion market cap, is one of the largest independent publishers left in the industry in the post-MS/Activision landscape, but that may be about to change.
Why Amazon?
Other than “they can afford it,” Amazon has always been on the fringes of the video game industry without making much of an impact in…producing actual games. Amazon owns Twitch, the giant streaming platform mostly used for video game streaming. Amazon has launched Luna, a game-streaming service that barely anyone has heard of. And Amazon has published a few games like New World, an MMO that is not exactly a smash hit, and Lost Ark, which has fared better, but only because it was a port of an existing, successful Korean game.
Lost Ark
AmazonPurchasing EA would mean that Amazon now owns and publishes a massive amount of storied gaming franchises, instantly. FIFA, Madden, Apex Legends, Battlefield, Battlefront, Jedi: Fallen Order, Mass Effect and Dragon Age would now all be Amazon properties. Almost all of these have new game in the works, and it does seem unlikely an Amazon deal would significant derail anything planned. I would not expect this to be a WB/Discovery/HBO situation where new bosses come in and start cleaning house. Amazon wants all these games and these players and these franchises, and this purchase would essentially be them admitting that they cannot do it on their own, despite years of trying, so they’re buying their way to influence.
Like the Microsoft/Activision deal, this would be subject to some amount of regulatory scrutiny. Microsoft has had to pledge things like that Call of Duty will stay a multiplatform game, in order to avoid anti-trust concerns. Amazon has no hardware to make things exclusive to, and I very much doubt their master plan is to suddenly try to make all EA games Luna streaming exclusives, so it could be smoother sailing for them.
But obviously there are some very real concerns about Amazon’s reach in society as a whole and this is just another example of them pervading every industry in major ways. We could be headed into a situation where you can read a review of the new Dragon Age game (owned by Amazon) written in the Washington Post (owned by Amazon) while you watch players stream it on Twitch (owned by Amazon) before deciding to order a copy yourself…on Amazon.
We should have more information on this as the day goes on as Amazon and EA do or don’t comment on the situation, or prepare a big announcement. EA stock is up 14% pre-market on the rumors alone. More to come.
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