Within hours of a USA Today report claiming Amazon planned to announce an acquisition of Electronic Arts, CNBC has produced reporting shooting the idea down.
USA Today's report, published by gaming vertical subsidiary GLHF, claimed Amazon might have wanted to use some of EA's tentpole franchises — Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Dead Space, and so on — as jumping off points for licensed TV shows. The report relied on anonymous sources and "rumors" for its claims, and it boosted EA's stock price several percentage points as outlets picked it up.
A few hours later, however, David Faber of CNBC shot the report down.
"I have talked to some people who would actually know if there was something going on, and they say there's nothing going on," he said on CNBC's Market Alert. "These are people who would be involved, who in fact were involved when our parent company was talking to Electronic Arts."
Faber went on: "EA has definitely been out there in the past a bit, considering what it might do, you could imagine Amazon might have some interest...
"No, this is not going to happen today, from what I'm hearing, unless the people who have been involved previously have no idea," he concluded.
USA Today has since amended its initial report, saying the original story violated its "editorial standards regarding the use of unnamed and unvetted sources." Those sources have been scrubbed from the story.
EA itself has declined to comment on the rumors.
This article was originally published on dbltap as CNBC Refutes Report of Amazon Acquiring Electronic Arts.
