Microsoft’s bid to acquire Activision for some $75 billion is leading to speculation that Apple, Amazon, or Disney could buy game makers Electronic Arts and/or Take-Two Interactive.
A 50% premium on Electronic Arts’ nearly $40 billion market cap would represent a $60 billion price tag. Take-Two’s $20 billion market cap could fetch it $30 billion in a sale…
“We believe the other large publishers are likely acquisition candidates,” Jefferies analyst Andrew Uerkwitzsaid said in a note reviewed by Marketwatch. “We do not expect there will be an over-the-top bid on Activision. If large tech is serious about interactive entertainment, the next few months will surely answer those questions. We view Amazon & Sony as the most likely to be acquisitive.”
Ubisoft Entertainment SA UBI, Take-Two, EA, and Sony “should see some form of valuation expansion in my view” as Walt Disney Co., Netflix, Amazon, Meta Platforms Inc., and Apple Inc “could look to make a move, and Disney or Apple make most sense,” Mizuho analyst Jordan Klein Klein wrote to its clients.
MacDailyNews Take: Owning tentpoles like the Madden NFL series, FIFA series, the Sims, Apex Legends, etc. and, perhaps, putting them or spinoffs exclusively into Apple Arcade would certainly boost subscriptions (Apple Services)!
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I’m obviously not a fan of Windows but I think this is beneath Apple. EA? Embarrassing.
You’re purchasing the IP. Many feel it would be a shrewd move.
Just an opportunity to rant:
Helping a child set up Minecraft (purchased by Microsoft) for cross-platform play (a main feature) is one of the most frustrating, convoluted, dead-end ridden, time-wasting, gosh… I don’t know what to say. One of the landing pages in the process looks like it was designed by a programmer who needed to cob something together quick.
I hope that MS doesn’t ruin Activision, but it might.
Maybe I’m missing something but why would you need to set up a client for Minecraft (or any client for that matter) for cross-platform play? Isn’t that type of setup the responsibility of the server running Minecraft? Or were you actually helping set up a Minecraft server for the child in question?
I was setting up a Switch to play cross-platform which is a feature of Minecraft.
The process to set it up was horrendous and the result is choppy and unpredictable. It’s been out on the Switch for 4+ years, not sure why it still sucks so bad.
And I’ll put it this way….
When I bought the game, having the knowledge it offered cross-platform play, I assumed one pops in their friend’s GamerTag and now you’re playing the same environment.
Instead you pay Nintendo for online play (fine, I get it) and then embark on a Microsoft-turd-tunnel requiring weird web addresses entries and confusing landing pages, downloading additional Microsoft crapps (fine, I get it), to then find hiccup after hiccup of finding your friends online, while they are online because you are communicating with them through the process (which they don’t know how to navigate either, because the whole process feels like a homebrew Linux project — and I don’t know personally what that feels like I just know what it probably feels like.)
And then talk to people and find “yeah, the cross platform thing with Minecraft isn’t so great…” whatever that means to them, because who has time to talk about something in depth that should have taken zero effort to begin with.
Ok, that sounds really hacky.. I wonder why MS just didn’t create a way to link your Nintendo account to an Xbox account since they’re both gaming platforms. Maybe a ‘standard’ to allow easier connections between gaming system accounts needs to be created by all parties (MS, Nintendo, Sony, etc.) if they really want cross-platform gaming to flourish.
well when MS owns the game that welcomes cross platform play I guess they feel they can do a craptastic job with it.
I guess it’s kinda like the Green Bubbles.
Yeah, the green bubbles and this weird lack of easy integration for Minecraft just makes it look like the companies just don’t want to really deal with cross-platform feature parity. Apple can somewhat be excused since they’re trying to connect iMessage to the legacy SMS/MMS service instead of actually releasing an Android iMessage app.
You need a Microsoft Account. I’ve setup these for my daughters who are playing Minecraft on their iPads. It’s a hassle, for sure.
EA Sports is the worst… Don’t buy them, please don’t buy them.
I think when Apple releases their virtual reality goggles or Apple Glasses, it will create a new generation of app creators (just as happened with the ascent of the iPhone). There is no point in buying up legacy game makers. It would be analogous to a buying an older movie studio, because “they have a nice collection of black and white films.”
The point is any acquisition of EA or TakeTwo would be for the owned and existing franchises not the developers themselves.
As tempting as it might be for Apple to purchase EA so that they could bring additional titles to the Apple eco system, it also requires that they maintain and possibly expand their development forks and support for multi-platform distribution.
It almost makes more sense for Apple to pay a game maker a fee to support the Mac OS/iOS platform (including Metal) particularly if they release something like AR glasses that can significantly enhance game play.
As for a lot of the Title A games – forget it. I have three serious gamers in my house and they all use custom built PC’s. The serious gaming market is dominated by young guys that upgrade components over time.
I guess you have to buy something when you want to move into the refrigerator toaster business. Maybe they have ADHD or something and just can’t concentrate on their core business anymore.
Well , look at the AppleTV content business – they don’t buy companies they hire stars, who then make their own movies and TV shows. Apple shouldn’t try to buy Nintendo, they should try to acquire some genius game directors and producers. Again, Apple has even more $$ than MSFT, and this is the cheap way to do great things. Perhaps they’re waiting until the Mac Pro’s are out, when they can really push hard on this.
Apple overpays for lackluster performances from overrated actors. There are few if any “genius” producers and directors, that’s not how the Mass Media works. It’s a highly conformist, hyper PC environment that promotes “diverse” mediocrities.
Not going to happen. These rumors always throw in Apple to raise the bidding higher. It would create a lot of negativity to the apple brand as people complain about EA.
Amazon and Disney may be better fits considering that they could take the existing EA and TakeTwo franchises and expand their worlds to books and movies. Sort of like what Riot is trying to do with Arcane for their League of Legends franchise.
It makes more sense for Apple to buy Nintando and port their games to Apple chips which are already more powerful than the one in the Switch.
Yeeees. Buy everything around Take-Two – Then hand it to Dr. Dre to continue his influence within GTA, but for him to literally run his city. Apple Music plays live in GTA without DMCA because Dre wants people to actually hear it. Wishful thinking…