Report: EA Pursued Valve for $1 Billion

Have you ever thought of a future where Electronic Arts (EA) and Valve were together? According to a report on the New York Times, that was almost a reality as the second-biggest videogame publisher in the world has tried to acquire Valve in privately held talks.

The sources, who spoke anonymously, also said that had the talks progressed, EA would have valued Valve at well over $1 billion dollars. Sadly, the two sources refused to divulge more info as the talks were private.

So, what does Valve CEO Gabe Newell think of something like this happening? Newell reveals that there's a better chance of Valve "disintegrating" before it's sold.

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.

While this has, in no way, been confirmed by Valve or EA, it's not that hard to see it being true, no? Perhaps EA's continued failures to acquire Valve and its Origin distribution service might be one of the catalysts in EA launching their own Origin digital platform.

Would you have been fine with EA acquiring Valve or would have that been the end of the company if that ever happened?