EA sought to acquire Valve

[SpotEnemyBoats]

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/367227/ea-sought-to-acquire-valve-for-1-billion/

A report by the New York Times wrote that: "Valve has been pursued over the years by Electronic Arts, which would very likely have valued Valve at well over $1 billion had the talks progressed that far".
The article claimed the information had come from "two people with knowledge of the discussion who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private".
However, Valve company president Gabe Newell said the company would "disintegrate" if it was purchased by another company.
"It's way more likely we would head in that direction than say, 'Let's find some giant company that wants to cash us out and wait two or three years to have our employment agreements terminate,' " he said.
In the past five years Electronic Arts has spent more than $1 billion on acquisitions in the social and mobile space. The company has bought the likes of PlayFish, Firemint and PopCap.
Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter estimates that Valve should be valued at around $2.5 billion.
The Washington based games studio is believed to make far more money from its Steam digital distribution service than sales of its own games.
Peter Moore, the second-in-command at EA, told the New York Times that Valve is "on the cutting edge of the future of this industry".

Thank you based Gaben for saying no to Egotistical Assholes.

 

[Warped Dan]

I seriously just shivered on my couch reading this. It makes me want to puke. EA is bad for business

 

[ríomhaire]

It's a privately held company so EA can't just buy it from under Gabe's feet. I do sometimes wonder what happens when Gabe dies though. His heir gets the company? Someone else in Valve? Shared ownership between the Valve employees?

 

[SpotEnemyBoats]

It's a privately held company so EA can't just buy it from under Gabe's feet. I do sometimes wonder what happens when Gabe dies though. His heir gets the company? Someone else in Valve? Shared ownership between the Valve employees?

Probably Doug Lombardi or Erik Johnson will succeed when Gabe retires or god forbid... he bites the dust.

 

[Dog--]

I wouldn't either, the company is worth 2.5 times that.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

I don't think he would for any amount of money. Considering Gabe's comment and that this is EA.

 

[DoctorWeeTodd]

Considering that EA bought PopCap for $750 Million, and BioWare and Pandemic for $860 Million, a Billion Dollars was a really cheap bid for VALVe.

 

[Eejit]

It doesn't say how long ago the $1b bid is, derp.
It's probably safe to assume that with Valve currently estimated at ~$2.5b it was quite a while ago.

 

[Barnz]

Probably Doug Lombardi or Erik Johnson will succeed when Gabe retires or god forbid... he bites the dust.

I'd rather have Mike Harrington back.

 

[morgs]

What about Mrs Newell!

 

[SpotEnemyBoats]

I'd rather have Mike Harrington back.

I wonder what's Mike Harrington doing since he left Valve?

Also:

 

[ríomhaire]

I think Harrington just retired and went around the world sailing. Gabe was talking about it in an interview before and he said if he did that he'd slit his wrists and jump in with the sharks after a week. He's a bit of a workaholic I think.

 

[Clay]

It doesn't say how long ago the $1b bid is, derp.
It's probably safe to assume that with Valve currently estimated at ~$2.5b it was quite a while ago.

I think it's safe to say after EA's wonderful job with PS3 Orange Box, they've ruined any chances they had to buy Valve.

Not to mention, Valve still cares about their community (even if they're in their own Time Zone where seconds become days) enough to not put us through that. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together that wants to run a successful business and can Google EA's reputation with their customers can make the determination that it's bad for their business.

You're up Activision. Start the bidding at $3 billion so Gabe can laugh at you for being just as bad as EA.

 

[Bad^Hat]

What about Mrs Newell!

Why did I read this like you were describing Santa's wife.