Disney To Purchase EA This Year?

Source: psxextreme.com

Big fish eat little fish. It's just the way of the world, even in business. Especially in business.

In the video game industry, we're always waiting to see who our big fish will swallow next. Last year, EA chased Take-Two around in circles for quite a while, but ended up with an empty stomach (it may have been a bitter-tasting fish, anyway, considering Take-Two's current stock price). But that's only our world; what happens when the biggest fish in the sea start chasing EA? Jill Goldsmith, Wall Street reporter for Variety, has suggested that Disney may try to buy EA in 2009, saying- "Disney is seen as a buyer, with market speculation centering on videogame company Electronic Arts as a possible target." Variety's Ben Fritz echoes this same sentiment over at The Cutscene, and adds that with the market in the condition it's in, we may see more in the way of huge media conglomerates snapping up video game publishers. As Fritz says:

"The videogame business has been having problems, with growth slowing of late, but it's still red hot compared to movies, TV, and music. And many videogame publishers, not just EA, have seen their stocks take major hits in the past six months, much more than the declines for big media shares. That means videogame publishers are more affordable for the conglomerates than they were a year ago. Which means we could just see a Disney-EA acquisition, or others like it, in 2009."

Seems like a logical mode of thinking, right? Everyone has been hurt by the economy, but as many analysts predicted, video games have flourished within a home entertainment (people stay home in a bad economy) cocoon of sorts. Perhaps "flourish" isn't the right word, but they've been staying fairly steady, so it's no surprise if Disney wants to expand their global domination with a play for EA. Gamers didn't like the idea of EA taking over Take-Two...we wonder how they'll respond to this...