According to a new report out today EA over the past few years has tried unsuccessfully to buy Valve. Apparently EA thinks that since everyone hates them the best way to rectify this problem is to buy other companies people love. Reportedly EA tired to buy Valve for a measly $1 billion, even though most people believe that Valve is worth at least $2.5 billion.

In the New York Times article, there were multiple opportunities for Gabe Newell to sell Valve:

“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, two people with knowledge of the discussion who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were private”.

The talks however broke down apparently, but it is not known why. Probably had something to do with EA trying to buy a $2.5 billion dollar company for only a billion. Then again it was more likely Newell wanted nothing to do with being bought out and felt it would destroy Valve. Newell has always believed that Valve would “disintegrate if it was ever bought by another company.”

“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,”

If this deal had gone through it might have been considered the most damaging buyout in the history of the video game industry. Like Newell said, if EA had bought Valve it would have destroyed Valve. Valve was built on being inventive and going in directions that other companies would not dream of; EA’s COO Peter Moore even said they are ”on the cutting edge of the future of this industry”.

These would not be the phrases I would use to describe EA, in fact these are the exact opposite phrases of what EA stands for. Well luckily it looks like the industry dodged a bullet and Valve is now way out of the price range of EA, especially with the news Valve may want to get into the hardware race. Which will probably make Valve an even more profitable company in the near future.