With the final stages of the Activision Blizzard acquisition by Microsoft right around the corner, EA is on the brink of becoming the video game industry’s largest standalone publisher and developer. With a lot of buzz surrounding EA’s current and upcoming position comes heaps of rumors along with it.
One such rumor popped up last May that revealed EA had been approached by the CEO of Comcast, Brian Roberts, about a potential acquisition. This possibility soon vanished due to the disagreements the two companies had over pricing and structure.
During the EA quarterly financial conference call for investors and analysts, chief executive officer Andrew Wilson was requested for a comment on the media speculation that talked about the company being allegedly acquired.
Wilson addressed the rumors by stating EA is on the road to being the “largest standalone independent developer and publisher of interactive entertainment in the world.” He went on to state that he thinks the company has “the most incredible teams in our industry on the planet and as Laura said earlier, we’re attracting more and more incredible creative talent.”
EA has previously declined to speak about the rumors and speculation surrounding EA’s supposed acquisitions, but Wilson has now gone on to say the company is in a fantastic place right now, stating he didn’t think EA could “be in a stronger position as a standalone company.”
Wilson’s plans for the company don’t stop there. “We have a community that’s 600 million strong that is growing and certainly, we’re willing… Our aspiration is to be able to… to engage a billion people in play across the planet.” Wilson reiterates there is no stopping for EA, saying the company is “growing across platforms, we’re growing across business models, and we’re growing across geographies.”
Despite the unbridled hope and passion Wilson shared for the company’s bright future as the largest standalone game developer and publisher, he did acknowledge there could be departures from the company’s current plans.
“Our objective and my objective as the CEO of this company, is always to take care of our people, our players, and our shareholders,” Wilson said. He continued further, stating that “should there ever be a way for us to do that differently from the way we’re doing today, I, of course, have to be open to that.”
Even though Wilson has denied any possibility of EA going through an acquisition in current times, he does indirectly acknowledge the possibility of it happening in the future, if it happens to be beneficial for the company overall.
