EA Wanted To Buy World of Warcraft

via Spong


John Riccitiello, the CEO of Electronic Arts, has said that he was interested in owning World of Warcraft, which now falls under the Activision Blizzard umbrella. He said that he discussed the matter, but that it wasn't on the cards.

This comes from an article on business website, Portfolio. In a baffling piece of reporting, Portfolio then goes on to say the reason this wasn't on the cards was (in Riccitiello's words), "Because [Vivendi] couldn't afford control of EA, and I wasn't giving it up."

We've run this through our corporate translator and this looks to SPOnG like a defensive posture from Riccitiello relating to the recent Activision Blizzard merger. Riccitiello states:

1) Vivendi couldn't afford EA (quite how he could know that SPOnG's not sure) but it could afford Activision.

2) Riccitiello (personally) wouldn't give up control of the company, even if Vivendi could afford it.

This comes just over a week after the completion of the Activision Blizzard merger, in which Vivendi took a 52% controlling share in Activision.

Interestingly, Riccitiello just let slip that a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic MMO is, in fact, in development. See SPOnG's report here.