Amazon is reportedly making an offer to buy EA (updated)

Please see the updates at the bottom of the page.

EA has been in and out of acquisition rumours for a long time now. Recently, the company responded to those rumours and seemed to deny that there was anything going on, but a new report suggests otherwise. According to sources, Amazon plans to acquire EA, and an announcement is imminent. 

According to Kirk McKeand, a games journalist working with GLHF, a games media company that seems to specialise in esports, Amazon will announce plans to acquire EA later today. This will be a formal offer, and then it will be up to EA to decide on the offer. The report does not seem to claim that EA has already accepted a buyout offer.

Amazon has been trying to get its own video games business up and running for years, but so far, its internal studios have only produced one game, New World, with other projects being scrapped, or released and then unreleased. Acquiring EA would immediately put Amazon on the map as a major player in the games space and would open the company up to partnerships with more studios throughout the industry.

Such a move would also give Amazon access to a treasure trove of IP, including Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Dead Space, Battlefield, Apex Legends/Titanfall, and even EA Sports. Amazon could use that access to produce TV shows and movies to bolster Prime Video, and it could leverage EA Sports for deeper partnerships with leagues and franchise organisations to up its sports content on Prime Video too.

This report has not been backed up by additional sources at this time. EA and Amazon have not yet responded to the story either.

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Update: David Faber of CNBC reports that Amazon is not putting in an offer to acquire EA following stock price surge. We expect more information this afternoon.

Update 2: The GLHF report has since been updated, labelling Amazon buying EA as a rumour and removing mention of where the rumour originated from.

KitGuru Says: The initial report on this doesn't have a whole lot of detail, and I am not very familiar with GLHF as a company, so it is difficult to tell how much weight we should give this one. Still, if its accurate, we'll hear more in the coming hours. 

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