Publishing giant Electronic Arts has reportedly sought to acquire fellow gaming giant Valve in the past, according to the New York Times.
The report states that EA would’ve valued the Steam distributor at around $1 billion had the private talks not broken down early. The author of the article, Nick Wingfield, says the info comes from “two people with knowledge of the discussion who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private.”
According to industry analyst Michael Pachter, though, buying Valve for $1 biliion would be quite the steal. Despite the company’s finances remaining private, Pachter estimates the Half-Life developer as being worth $2.5 billion today.
Valve head Gabe Newell said that his company would be likelier to “disintegrate,” with its various employees fleeing to other ventures, rather than be 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,’” Newell said.