Industry rumors suggest Apple to take over EA

According to industry chatter on Wall Street, Apple may have their sights set on Electronic Arts for a company takeover. Wait, what?

It all started with a quote from The Street, a NY Wall Street news site, as various rumors suggest that Apple, the titanic computer company behind the MacBook and Need For Speed franchise. Uh oh.

Edge Magazine also added more evidence to Apple's growing gaming itch as a recent follow-up article from their website notes a few more additions to Apple's corporate offices: Richard Taversham, Xbox Europe's (former) senior director of business, Bob Drebin, "the creator of the Nintendo GameCube's graphics processor" and Mark Papermaster, an IBM chip designer, "also recently joined Apple as head of its iPod business".

Of course, it's no surprise that Apple is snapping up gaming industry executives, with the iPhone making huge waves in mobile gaming and a recent interview with Gamasutra, he called the news "retarded" and stated that he didn't "want to start a rumor."

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter is highly skeptical of such talk, however. "Sounds retarded to me," he tells Gamasutra.

"Apple could buy Warner Music for around [US]$3 billion, and control 20 percent of all recorded music," he says. "That makes more sense to their current business model than buying EA for more than twice that, doesn't it?"

"I don't want to start a rumor, but want to point out that Apple doesn't own any entertainment content," adds the analyst, "so I don't know why they would feel compelled to enter a new business unrelated to their current product slate."