IsamuBlue
Formerly Megatron2929
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2008
- Posts
- 1,553
From 1UP.com
Scuttlebutt is going around Wall Street regarding a possible takeover of Electronic Arts at the hands of Microsoft. Talk of the potential buy has been dismissed as "unsubstantiated chatter" by Reuters, but rumors among traders have already served to drive up the stock of both companies. EA stock is up 5.24% to $19.36, while MS increased by 0.9% to $26. Some traders, at least, are banking on the possibility.
Whether purely the product of imagination or a legitimate piece of inside info, the rumor is plausible enough. The last year has seen a steady fall in videogame sales, the largest sales drop in nine years, leaving EA in a potentially weakened state. Such acquisitions have happened increasingly often, as in the case of "Activision Blizzard", and Zenimax/ID, and even EA's own attempts to acquire Take-Two.
Just how such a buy would change the face of the industry is difficult to comprehend. With EA dominating 20% game publishing market share and Microsoft 35% of hardware sales, the two combined would represent an absolute monolith. Or, at the very least, a chance to have a playable John Madden character for Halo 3: ODST's Firefight mode as DLC.
What do you guys think if this were to happen? Would Sony and Nintendo be utterly screwed? Would EAsoft take over gaming industry? I'd really like to hear your thoughts on this.
Scuttlebutt is going around Wall Street regarding a possible takeover of Electronic Arts at the hands of Microsoft. Talk of the potential buy has been dismissed as "unsubstantiated chatter" by Reuters, but rumors among traders have already served to drive up the stock of both companies. EA stock is up 5.24% to $19.36, while MS increased by 0.9% to $26. Some traders, at least, are banking on the possibility.
Whether purely the product of imagination or a legitimate piece of inside info, the rumor is plausible enough. The last year has seen a steady fall in videogame sales, the largest sales drop in nine years, leaving EA in a potentially weakened state. Such acquisitions have happened increasingly often, as in the case of "Activision Blizzard", and Zenimax/ID, and even EA's own attempts to acquire Take-Two.
Just how such a buy would change the face of the industry is difficult to comprehend. With EA dominating 20% game publishing market share and Microsoft 35% of hardware sales, the two combined would represent an absolute monolith. Or, at the very least, a chance to have a playable John Madden character for Halo 3: ODST's Firefight mode as DLC.
What do you guys think if this were to happen? Would Sony and Nintendo be utterly screwed? Would EAsoft take over gaming industry? I'd really like to hear your thoughts on this.
