Disney to buy EA? |
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| BY Lee Bradley Jan. 7th, 2009 | More on: |
Jill Goldsmith, respected Wall Street reporter for Variety, has speculated that 2009 may see Disney buy out Electronic Arts. In a story based on interviews with a number of financial specialists in the field, Goldsmith looks at what the coming year may hold for major media conglomerates, saying; “Disney is seen as a buyer, with market speculation centering on videogame company Electronic Arts as a possible target.”
It’s a theory supported by Ben Fritz over at The Cutscene, who suggests that with the market as it is, 2009 may see many of the big media conglomerates taking major steps into the videogame industry. Fritz said, “The videogame business has been having problems, with growth slowing of late, but it’s still red hot compared to movies, TV, and music. And many videogame publishers, not just EA, have seen their stocks take major hits in the past six months, much more than the declines for big media shares. That means videogame publishers are more affordable for the conglomerates than they were a year ago. Which means we could just see a Disney-EA acquisition, or others like it, in 2009.”
January 7th, 2009
at 8:13 am
Sounds unlikely. As we’ve seen of lately, many of those financial specialists aren’t more accurate than a horoscope.
January 7th, 2009
at 9:17 am
A third-person shooter starring Mickey Mouse and Friends battling against classic Disney Villains. Hey, Kingdom Hearts came out, so anything’s possible.
January 7th, 2009
at 10:13 am
it will be perfect marriage made in heaven. i love it
January 7th, 2009
at 11:47 am
Not sure. if disney can do , why not Microsoft ??!! I don’t think anybody can buy EA, its a very very big company…
January 7th, 2009
at 1:22 pm
Wait, what will happen in SSX now when a person rides Goofy?
January 7th, 2009
at 6:44 pm
Disney is not exactly tiny, in fact market cap of disney was larger than sony early last year but not sure bout now as the share markets have changed drastically since then.
It would most likely be a share swap rather than a monetary acquistion. Similar to how disney bought Pixar. Basically it would mean if you are a shareholder in EA you would be given disney shares in exchange. Something like that anyway.
MS could buy EA with its piggy bank and have 20 billion or so left over but there is no way that MS would do that in this current economy
January 7th, 2009
at 7:14 pm
Personally I believe that if Disney was to buy any big company they should purchase Ubisoft. All EA has is a bunch of Sports franchises be it the NBA,NFL,NASCAR etc etc etc… barely anything original. The bad thing is that anything that was original they have ruined with too many sequels, such as Medal of Honor & Need for Speed etc etc etc… I just think Ubisoft would definitely have more to offer Disney than EA would. Hell I think any other developers would make a better choice such as…
- Bandai Namco (Eternal Sonata)
- Travelers Tales (Lego Starwars,Indiana Jones, Batman etc etc etc…)
- Factor 5 (Star Wars Rouge Squadron Series, Lair)
- THQ (Already makes many Disney Games)
- Atlus (Trauma Center)
I also wanna say others but think that Disney would ruin them & would want to take them in a different direction that wouldn’t work for what they are synonymous with. So for example Disney could save Midway from Bankruptcy but they would probably ruin the Mortal Kombat series and that is what they are known for, well that and the Rush series. Well then there’s also Square Enix but they are a very large company and I don’t think they would want to go in Disney’s Direction.
As for other Japanese game companies there also Tecmo but if Disney joined them they would lose all the blood and Breast Physics they have obviously worked so hard to preserve.
Anyway’s I just don’t think that EA is Disney’s best choice.