Electronic Arts was apparently prepared to pay up to $1 billion in order to acquire Valve, according to a new report. However it looks like the possibility of such a sale is incredibly slim.
The New York Times have reported that ‘Valve have been pursued over the years by Electronic Arts.’ They have claimed to see a report which lists a number of opportunities Gabe Newell has had to sell the company in the past.
According to the article:
"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 goes on to state that the claims come courtesy of “two people with knowledge of the discussion who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private".
Valve company president Gable Newell has previously stated that 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 have spent more than $1 billion on acquisitions in the social and mobile space. The company have bought a number of companies including PlayFish, Fireming and PopCap.
Valve have recently been valued at around $2.5 billion dollars according to Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter. Pachter, the second in command at EA , told the New York Times that Valve are on the cutting edge of the future of the gaming industry. Valves estimated value has mainly been attributed to the Steam digital distribution service. The games studio is believed to make far more money from its Steam digital distribution service than sales of its own games.
Valve only look to increase in value especially with the recent news that Valve will be entering the hardware development business.
