by Stacy Jones on Apr 26, 2012
A new rumor regarding Electronic Arts has started to make its way around the web today. According to reports from Forbes, Yahoo News and Bloomberg, Nexon is rumored to have made a bid to take over the publisher. The story originated from a South Korean news report, and EA stocks jumped more than 6% following the news.
EA publishes a number of different sports games along with other popular titles such as the Mass Effect series, MMORPGs Star Wars: The Old Republic, Warhammer Online and more. Nexon, who made over a billion dollar IPO in Japan's Tokyo Stock Exchange last year, is known for its multitude of free-to-play MMORPG titles such as MapleStory, Vindictus, Atlantica Online and many others.
This is not the first time that a company has been rumored to be looking at EA. In October 2010, rumored reports hinted at Apple's possible interest in acquiring the publishing giant. For now, it remains a rumor, so take it with a grain of salt until there is an official announcement.
As of the writing of this article, there has been no word from EA or Nexon on the rumored offer. Stay tuned and well update you when we have more.
Update: Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter weighs in at GamesIndustry.biz. As is no surprise, Pachter believes the rumor is unlikely more than just that and uses some of those finely tuned market analyst skills to explain why.
Sources: Forbes, Bloomberg, Yahoo News