With the completion of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, EA is poised to take its place as the industry’s largest standalone developer and publisher. Which, of course, has raised many questions about whether or not EA itself could be acquired one day.
One of those rumors surfaced in a Puck report last May that revealed EA had been approached by Comcast CEO Brian Roberts about a potential acquisition — but it fell apart over disagreements over price and structure.
Though EA has repeatedly declined to comment on “rumors and speculation,” CEO Andrew Wilson answered a question about acquisitions during today’s Q1 earnings conference, repeating that he doesn’t think the publisher can “do it as a standalone company in be in a stronger position.”
“Our aim is always to take care of our employees, our players and our shareholders,” he continued. “If there is ever a way for us to do this differently than we are doing today, I obviously have to be open to it, but I want to tell you today that we are very, very confident and excited about our future.”
It was indeed a successful quarter for EA, with double-digit revenue increases from F1 22 compared to last year’s F1 and total net sales of $1.78 billion (vs. $1.55 billion year-over-year), driven primarily by powered by live service gaming – which now accounts for over 70% of its business over the last 12 months. And unlike some of its peers, it doesn’t seem overly affected by delays (or at least not a bunch of public delays). In fact, between the Dead Space remake, all the usual sports games, Super Mega Baseball, and two other unannounced games coming out in early 2023, the next three quarters are looking pretty promising.
However, it’s worth noting that this is the sort of standard statement that pretty much every CEO has been making about acquisitions lately. Ubisoft said so, and so did Take-Two. Statements like these on takeover issues are fairly common, as they discourage the CEO from actually lying when a takeover is discussed, but also doesn’t invite too much speculation, given the numerous legal and business reasons executives can’t confirm or deny it , until the deal is almost sealed.
Additionally, companies like EA are constantly discussing acquisitions, both in terms of what they might want to acquire and whether or not they could be acquired. Talks take place several times a year; The only reason they usually fail is that the two sides can’t fully agree on a deal that works for both of them most of the time.
Will EA be taken over one day? Maybe, maybe not. What is certain is that it will likely continue to be approached with offers while also making offers of its own, and with the Activision-Blizzard acquisition, EA is in one of the best positions in the industry to either decline deals or make a hugely lucrative offer one.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
Those: https://www.ign.com/articles/ea-ceo-responds-to-acquisition-rumors-we-couldnt-be-in-a-stronger-position-as-a-standalone-company
