According to Puck, EA is actively searching for a buyer or someone who wants to complete a merger with them. They have apparently been in meetings with other companies that are potentially interested. Companies like Disney, Apple, and Amazon are amongst them.
It hasn’t been reported which companies wanted to merge with EA and which ones wanted to outright buy the company. For the merger EA wants Andrew Wilson to remain CEO of the merged company. It is surprising to hear about EA approaching Disney, after the issues with the licensing deal, to try to come up with a better relationship with them specifically.
I feel like Disney made the right choice by allowing other companies a chance to work on new games. With the storytelling abilities of the other companies in question, it might soon be a good day for Star Wars gamers once again.
It seems that Comcast was very close to a merger with NBCUniversal. CEO Brian Roberts reportedly talked to Wilson about the merger with Roberts taking the majority share of control. The agreement was never finalized and EA is still standing out as its own entity still.
With all of the sales going on with Activision Blizzard and Bungie getting snatched up it will be interesting to see if and when something happens with EA. EA single-handedly took a long spree of Star Wars games and slowed it down to only a couple of titles in the time it had the license. Them losing exclusivity was great for Star Wars fans.
Suzie Ford
Let’s just hope that BioWare is sold off as a separate entity and that a great company with strong RPG creds snaps ’em up. It’s time to return to their roots.