LA Times Predicts a Disney Buyout of EA, also lists Take Two as Viacom target - RaychelSnr's Blog

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LA Times Predicts a Disney Buyout of EA, also lists Take Two as Viacom target Stuck

Posted on January 8, 2010 at 01:45 PM.

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In their list of 2010 predictions, the Los Angeles Times listed a buyout of EA as one of their top predictions for the new year.

Quote:


	Disney will buy Electronic Arts Inc. Having bolstered its ranks of cartoon characters with its acquisition of Marvel Entertainment, Disney will finally make a run at video game publisher Electronic Arts, whose games include the lucrative Madden Football franchise. The deal will again trigger speculation that Disney will unload ABC. But Disney CEO Bob Iger, while hardly sentimental, was groomed at ABC and doesn't want to be known as the leader who turned his back on the acquisition. Disney's deal will put other video game publishers, such as Grand Theft Auto creator Take-Two Interactive, into play. Viacom Inc. would like to acquire it, but Chairman Sumner Redstone's debt situation will make it hard for him to do any deals.

This is one of the many rumors floating around that EA and Disney could be a match. These same type of rumors persisted in late 2008 and early 2009 as well. While there is no real official talk on this from either company, the fact the rumor keeps coming up and more and more people see it as a definite possibility gives some credence that something is going on behind the scenes.

What this would mean for the consumer isn't completely clear, especially sports gaming consumers. I will have more information on the impacts of major media buying out sports gaming publishers in the coming days and weeks. However, a buyout of this sort would probably be less noticeable for sports gamers than the attempted (but eventually failed) EA buyout of Take Two last year.

Do you think Disney buying EA would be a good or bad thing for consumers?

Comments

# 1 Falcons11497 @ Jan 8

wow..........

# 2 Falcons11497 @ Jan 8

man....I wonder what would happen to madden and the other sports titles if Disney bought EA

# 3 EnigmaNemesis @ Jan 8

They would say "we are going to Disneyland" when they win the superbowl.

# 4 rspencer86 @ Jan 8

I think one of the major impacts we would see is the ESPN integration being pushed much more aggressively. Although EA has the rights to ESPN integration now, they haven't done too much with it because they wanted grow the EA name to become synonymous with sports, much like ESPN has done. But because Disney owns ABC/ESPN, I think they will want to put those logos out it front more than the EA name.

# 5 RaychelSnr @ Jan 8

I think tighter integration with Disney owned properties would be a huge plus for sports gamers for sure. That's one I could think of right off hand. You'd probably see more EA Sports logos on ESPN and more ESPN logos on EA Sports games basically.

# 6 superstarshad @ Jan 8

It'll be bad. All corporate buyouts are bad. Disney would be looking to recoup its losses asap, which means they would kill a lot of EA projects, and do the bare minimum when releasing the annual release games. I for one could care less in regards to ESPN integration, unless they can give me Mike and Mike in the morning during my offline franchise. Just a thought...

# 7 stlstudios189 @ Jan 8

Disney will own the entire freaking country in 10 years

# 8 elgreazy1 @ Jan 8

I'm not sure how I feel about big corporations buying into gaming. It's hard enough for independent companies as it is to compete in the market nowadays and by merging two power & money hungry companies like this it could spell disaster.

# 9 Cuse 15 @ Jan 8

Cant they be happy with just owning the Rock