Nexon offers to buy EA - Report

[Philip_J_Fry]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/maple-s...report-6373621

Korean free-to-play game company Nexon has reportedly made an offer to purchase FIFA, Battlefield, and Mass Effect publisher Electronic Arts, according to a Bloomberg video report.

The Bloomberg report cites an unnamed South Korean newspaper with the news, and does not elaborate on the potential deal in any way. An EA representative told GameSpot, "Only comment here would be that we don't comment on rumors or speculation about our business."

EA's shares are responding positively to the rumor, as the company's single-share value opened today at $15.76, well ahead of the $15.01 closed at yesterday. As of press time, EA is trading at $15.81 per share.

i was kinda hoping EA would just go bankrupt for ruining Crysis, C&C, Mass Effect, and many other series. i am not sure how to feel about this. maybe this is just a rumor to bid up the price.

[El Mano]

How does Nexon treat their customers? Perhaps this brings some positive changes.

I can't think how could it be worse.

[zanzabar]

How does Nexon treat their customers? Perhaps this brings some positive changes.

I can't think how could it be worse.

they only do free to play and in their games you have to buy cash shop to keep going. they are honest about it though.

[paulbagz]

Would they really have enough cash to get EA like that though?! =/

-PB

[zanzabar]

Would they really have enough cash to get EA like that though?! =/

-PB

they take in about $1.1 billion USD per year in revenue and are one of the largest software companies in the world with a market cap of 6billion euros.

[Klarko]

Would they really have enough cash to get EA like that though?! =/

-PB

"In the May 2012 issue of Forbes Asia, my colleague John Koppisch wrote a story about Nexon founder Kim Jung-Ju, who it turns out is now South Korea’s third-richest person; a year ago he was No. 9 on the list. He got a boost this year from Nexon’s December IPO in Tokyo. The story notes that Nexon expects revenue this year to be up 25% to $1.4 billion, with profits expected to rise 53% to almost $500 million. As the piece notes, Nexon was founded in 1994 as a provider of free online games."

[El Mano]

"In the May 2012 issue of Forbes Asia, my colleague John Koppisch wrote a story about Nexon founder Kim Jung-Ju, who it turns out is now South Korea’s third-richest person; a year ago he was No. 9 on the list. He got a boost this year from Nexon’s December IPO in Tokyo. The story notes that Nexon expects revenue this year to be up 25% to $1.4 billion, with profits expected to rise 53% to almost $500 million. As the piece notes, Nexon was founded in 1994 as a provider of free online games."

Mwa ha ha, this can't happen soon enough.
I hope their first decision is to fire the actual CEO and board.

[thegoatman]

But... if this company buys it, and subsequently gets bombed by North Korea, which they have promised to do within the last month, what happens to these games?

[El Mano]

But... if this company buys it, and subsequently gets bombed by North Korea, which they have promised to do within the last month, what happens to these games?

Don't worry, an army of unicorns and ninjas will save the games and take them to Nexon's secret moon base.
Seriously now: WTF?

[zanzabar]

But... if this company buys it, and subsequently gets bombed by North Korea, which they have promised to do within the last month, what happens to these games?

they will cost you $60 less and will not ruin your memories.

[bamtan2]

oh my. how times change. bubbles form and burst. whats the name of that other ty company? zynga?

EA is the Ford of game publishers. or at least it will be until it is destroyed by some junk F2P company. EA was fine until it started acting like them.

[tajoh111]

they take in about $1.1 billion USD per year in revenue and are one of the largest software companies in the world with a market cap of 6billion euros.

That doesn't mean they have enough money to do it. Market capitalization of ea is around 5 billions dollars. To actually buy the company, you typically have to pay well above it's market capitalization. E.g when AMD bought ATI or when Microsoft tried to buy yahoo.

Financially, this would be the same as Nvidia trying to buy AMD. Nvidia is worth more and is more profitable and has 2 billion in cash, but I don't think they have enough resources to buy AMD.

EA revenue is usually around 3-4 billion(this company has about 1 billion), the problem is this year, they didn't make money. They are too close in size for one company to buy the other. This would be more of a merger than anything.

[Dainas]

oh my. how times change. bubbles form and burst. whats the name of that other ty company? zynga?

EA is the Ford of game publishers. or at least it will be until it is destroyed by some junk F2P company. EA was fine until it started acting like them.

EA and Activision Blizzard are worse the F2P games. They may be similar in the amount of passion and care they put into a title, but EA and Activision collaborate to get more money out of us by the entry fee. They are like the At&T/Verizon duopoly of the Gaming industry. My Problem with all these companies is too much money goes to the parasite executives and stock holders and not enough to those making the games. Just like the rest of the entertainment industry, these people push for censorship and control over the internet to prevent what is finally happening to the music industry. The death if the profit parasite label (publisher) and direct distribution or publishing by far more efficient 3rd parties.

[antiacid]

How does Nexon treat their customers? Perhaps this brings some positive changes.

I can't think how could it be worse.

I'm fairly certain that even if Nexon's board of directors were baby-eating cannibals, it would still be a step up from EA's...

[EniGmA1987]

they only do free to play and in their games you have to buy cash shop to keep going. they are honest about it though.

I would actually welcome that for all the big EA titles. It really wouldnt be different as Mass Effect 3 allows you to buy multiplayer random upgrades for money already, on top of costing a ton of money initially. Being free and buying what I feel like sounds a lot better IMO

[Andrew LB]

i was kinda hoping EA would just go bankrupt for ruining Crysis, C&C, Mass Effect, and many other series.

My hate for EA began way back in the early 1990's when they bought a small studio called Origin and utterly destroyed Ultima 8 and 9.

[MrToad]

My hate for EA began way back in the early 1990's when they bought a small studio called Origin and utterly destroyed Ultima 8 and 9.

I don't "hate" EA but as a long time UO player and follower of the Ultima single player series I was also disappointed with what EA did with Origin, bringing the whole Ultima universe crashing down and leading it to an untimely demise.

Unfortunately they went ahead and did it all over again with a company called Bioware...

I'd be much happier if EA would have stuck to make sports games and FPS (which as you can possibly guess I don't play) and leave RPGs alone...

[vohu manah]

i was kinda hoping EA would just go bankrupt for ruining Crysis, C&C, Mass Effect, and many other series. i am not sure how to feel about this. maybe this is just a rumor to bid up the price.

EA Published the original Crysis... How can they ruin Crysis, if they published the original game (and its sequel)?

Crytek to my knowledge is an independent developer, and can choose their publisher as they wish. Of all their possbile choices, they choose EA as their publisher. EA believed in a game could sell, that was visually a landmark for its time (and in years to come), but to many, had a mediocre gameplay explerience.

I do not believe many publishers were willing to take such a chance. I personally like the Crysis series.

[trans am]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skate_or_Die!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_of_the_Ancients


My 2 fav commodore 64 games were EA. I can't how badly they screwed that company up since 1987.

[El Mano]

EA Published the original Crysis... How can they ruin Crysis, if they published the original game (and its sequel)?

Crytek to my knowledge is an independent developer, and can choose their publisher as they wish. Of all their possbile choices, they choose EA as their publisher. EA believed in a game could sell, that was visually a landmark for its time (and in years to come), but to many, had a mediocre gameplay explerience.

I do not believe many publishers were willing to take such a chance. I personally like the Crysis series.

Agreed. BUT,
then they released (Warhead) Crysis 2 with all the graphics issues we already know, and infested by cheaters. DLC on sale on GameSpy and many other problems.
Crysis was ok but Crysis 2 was designed for consoles and only interesting as a sale. So yes, they did screw the Crysis franchise.
I believe Crytek can make fine PC games but they need too get rid of EA.

[STEvil]

Lets not forget that Crytek's first publisher was Ubisoft.. for Far Cry.