EA Wanted To Acquire Valve For Over $1 Billion, Gabe Said No

Such a move would “disintegrate” the company, Valve owner Gabe Newell told the New York Times in a rather lengthy and telling interview.

“Valve has been pursued over the years by Electronic Arts, which would very likely have valued Valve at well over $1 billion had the talks progressed that far,” the report claimed.

The article noted that the information had come from “two people with knowledge of the discussion who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private”.

Gabe Newell, however, told NYTimes that if they were purchased by any other company, it wouldn’t be too long until that new company terminate their employment agreements: “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.

While EA laid out $1 billion for Valve, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter said a Valve valuation would be over $2.5 billion.

Peter Moore, EA’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) told the New York Times that Valve is “on the cutting edge of the future of this industry”.