I hope EA rots.. I think the last title by them that I paid for was Red Alert 2. Most of the crap they make now isn't even worth the disk space, and that says a lot when terabyte drives are no big deal.
EA sought to buy Valve for $1 billion - Report
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Half-Life house supposedly courted for purchase by Battlefield publisher; Gabe Newell says company would rather "disintegrate" than sell out.
FIFA and Battlefield publisher Electronic Arts has reportedly been making a play to purchase Half-Life and Portal studio Valve. The New York Times reports that EA has sought to purchase the firm for years, valuing the company at well over $1 billion.
According to "people with knowledge of the discussion," the talks did not progress far. Valve's finances are private, but a Forbes report from March estimated the firm's value at $3 billion, with cofounder Gabe Newell's personal net worth believed to be about $1.5 billion.
Despite the billion dollar offer, Newell said Valve would prefer to "disintegrate" than ever sell out.
“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.
EA is no stranger to big buyouts. The company purchased Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled studio PopCap last year for $650 million in cash, with an additional $550 on the table for staffers as bonuses provided certain performance benchmarks are hit.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
912 comments
F that. Valve are closer to freedom fighters of gaming than some bottom line business. They'd never sell out.
Everyone seems to want to damage or sue or buy valve since they set a standard of honesty and fairness that no one else wants to adhere to. Low prices, no drm, no unfair day one dlc. Games as they should be
I'm very glad. Valve is imo the best company in the PC gaming industry and i certainly don't want Valve bought by another company esspacially EA
2 Like Presumably, EA's strategy is to buy all the gaming companies and unite them into the Glorious Electronic Kingdom of Gaming (GEKoG). From their they will purchase actors for personal enjoyment, proceed to buy out Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, and 21st Century Fox, and they will create films based on memes in order to create easy cash. By then they should have enough income to purchase and maintain Blackwater. They can then gather all their resources onto unclaimed wilderness land and declare themselves to be a sovereign nation. Then they get nuked, and peace returns.
Admirable, that decision is not made by enough other entities. But i doubt that EA will be deterred at all, if they really really want valve, they'll keep after them until EA gets what it wants.
What exactly is EA's strategy ??? Buying out every other gaming company so that it remains the Last Corp Standing ??? Wonder what will be the state of the gaming industry then !!!
2 Like Why offer a billion when physically presenting a Double Whopper with cheese would have sealed the deal in about ten seconds.
Wow... I read this after reading this one GS interview one of EA's upper dogs explaining that they're not bad people. Wow...
lol...thats the benefit of being private, nobody can touch you, not EA, not investors, not regular joes on the street. All power rests in a few peoples hands. When those people are good and have gamers at heart like Gabe does, then a company like steam is born and everyone benefits. EA can suk my harry dingalongs. Heres hoping steam stays private.
Why the hell did EA even think Valve could be bought like that. EA has that every competition can be bought out mentality, which is sickening. Good on Valve for not selling out. Now how about Half Life 3? ^.^
3 Like OMG my son just cringed when he heard me tell this story. EA would have found a way to destroy TF2 probably.
What will EA do if they cant buy other peoples ideas and work.
They should spend that money on there own company.
2 Like Anyone remember Westwood? Ohh yeah, thats before EA bought them and then three years later closed them down and stole their intelectual propitiy
@thingta42 dont remind me EA can rot in hell for what they did to WESTWOOD AND C&C FRANCHISE
4 Like Finally a great game studio with balls to tell EA to suck it. Gordon Freeman will always be a Free Man!!!
The last thing the industry needs is more consolidation. Thank God for people like Gabe Newell standing up to EA.
Still, I'm worried eventually EA or Activision will make an offer he can't refuse...
@csward Give the man some credit. He turned down a billion dollar offer. I doubt anyone will offer more than that anytime soon. Plus he said he would rather disintegrate his company then sell out.
8 Like "Despite the billion dollar offer, Newell said Valve would prefer to "disintegrate" than ever sell out."
God mode.
OMG!!!!!! Valve, i take back everything i ever said about you! that is an un-believeably awesome slap in the face to EA, which i greatly enjoyed hearing! Thank you for not selling out!
1 Like @blackothh shame on you for not standing with Valve in the first place. Did u ever play HL 1 or 2 or CS? If you did then u would know what a fully finished games plays like. Valve may not release as many games as other companies, but they hardly have any bugs of any kind and are polished to a mirror like shine before release day.
Whoever organized this deserves a medal! From Destructoid's Twitter: EA's Facebook page trolled with hentai, Gabe Newell pics http://dtoid.it/TSPnvZ
Disintegrate hahahahaha. I can't stop laughing. That's a big slap in the face isn't it? Whether he meant it literally or metaphorically, it doesn't matter. EA can go through a portal and end up where the sun don't shine!!!!
?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,?"
That had me laughing out loud...
1 Like I hate to say this but the only reason he's not selling out is he already has a personal net worth of 1.5 BILLION.
3 Like THANK GOODNESS GABE. IMAGINE THE HORRORS IF YOU ACTUALLY SOLD OUT TO THEM...
"HALF LIFE 4"
OMG THANK YOU FOR NOT SELLING OUT
7 Like EA keep you're dirty diseased mits off Valve!!! For crying out loud the only way you seem to know how to get new talent is to poach it from else ware!!
Then when you do take over the companies you force them to make endless amounts of sequels for example:
Westwood were taken over by EA back in 1998 just after the final releases of Counterstrike and The Aftermath have they made a decent game since then well no not really WW was then closed in 2003 when all the talent juice was gone.
Maxis was another one doing fine on its own creating simcity and so on until they were acquired in 1997 now they bloody release a new sims game way to often.
So in short Valve stick you're middle finger at the corporate greed that is EA, heaven forbid if this goes through and then we should expect yearly instalments of Portal, Half Life, and CS, which will then ruin it for everyone!!!
8 Like The only Valve game I've ever played is Portal 1, and I borrowed it from my brother. I have begrudgingly used Steam a couple times when I bought a retail copy of a game and it actually just installed and downloaded from steam. I have zero commitment to Valve as an actual supplier of products I care about. And yet I love this news story. I love what Valve tries to be in this industry as an employer. I love that Gabe won't sell out his company that he built to anyone else. And I love that EA got snubbed (by anyone).
Don't go to fail. Don't go directly to fail. Do not sell out. Do not collect a billion dollars. Well played Newel.
3 Like EA Executives: "We would like to buy Valve for $1,000,000,000."
Gabe Newell: "I can anser that with four simple words: NO CHANCE IN HELL!!!"
Valve Excecutives: "If you're not down with that, WE'VE GOT TWO WORDS FOR YA!!!!"
Valve Fanbase: "SUCK IT!!!!!!"
*Queue the Degeneration X theme*
1 Like EA: We'll buy you for 1 billion dollars.
Valve: While that sounds like a good offer, I'm afraid I just don't have any more room in my change pocket.
Same guy that said he hated Sony (paraphrase), right? Yeah, he's an honest one, and doesn't sell out at all at the 1st sign of Sony throwing money at Portal 2 (and all of a sudden is on Sony's E3 stage, lol). Good thing all these fanboys don't worship him. Oh, wait... :(
1 Like I wasn't a fan of Half Life 2..I loved 1.. but not 2 or any of its sequels.. but steam is amazing and I give Valve props for helping us PC gamers stay alive.
Sell out? Like making all users agree to mandatory arbitration clauses? Too late, Valve...too late. It's sad they still try to act cool.
3 Like I pray the day never comes where EA purchases Take Two or Valve. So many good franchises would be destroyed.
''Gabe Newell says company would rather "disintegrate" than sell out.'' '' ?Let?s find some giant company that wants to cash us out and wait two or three years to have our employment agreements terminate,'' Ouch! I didn't know steam could give you a .... BURN! *snap*
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
...Even though I can't say I ever really liked any Valve games...
@JasonThomas83 I'm just not into the FPS genre that much, I really don't see much use in getting any beyond the admittedly-archaic old classics I have. The last I ever paid for was Battlefront II, which was great.
But LET'S NOT DETRACT FROM THE MAIN POINT, that being that it is about to disappear pinwheeling into the oblivion that is EA! Yes, that means that there will BE NO MORE HALF-LIFE hereafter! At least not like you know and love now...
doesnt make sense to sell for a 3rd of its value, it shows that the man running the show at Valve is not stupid, especaliy when you have steam earning you money each day
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