Is EA Going to Buy Zynga or Playfish in Social Gaming Bid?
In recent weeks we’ve been hearing rumors about gaming giant EA looking to acquire social gaming companies — specifically Zynga and Playfish. Both companies have denied the rumors, so assuming there are no deals that are about to be inked and announced, here’s what appears to be going on.
EA, as many in the gaming industry have expected, is starting to look around for acquisitions. If anything, we’re surprised we haven’t heard rumors about other gaming giants, like Activision/Blizzard and Ubisoft doing the same.
Zynga, as we wrote a couple weeks ago, has to our knowledge spurned funding earlier this year, and since grown revenue to possibly more than $200 million for this year. At some point recently, it was having “preliminary” talks with EA, according to multiple sources, with one person saying that the asking price was $1 billion. Zynga has flatly denied everything. We believe that Zynga could look to go public as soon as March, once its 2009 financials have been audited.
We have a few more details on what has supposedly been happening with Playfish….
October 14th, 2009 at 4:03 am
[...] Is EA Going to Buy Zynga or Playfish in Social Gaming Bid? In recent weeks we’ve been hearing rumors about gaming giant EA looking to acquire social gaming companies — specifically Zynga and Playfish. Both companies have denied the rumors, so assuming there are no deals that are about to be inked and announced, here’s what appears to be going on. Inside Facebook [...]
November 23rd, 2009 at 1:03 pm
[...] — Zynga had at one point talked to Electronic Arts about a possible acquisition for up to $1 billion, we heard last month. Instead, EA bought smaller rival Playfish in a deal worth up to $400 million. [...]