I don't see this happening.

But it would be funny to see Apple come out on nowhere to have the huge E3 blockbuster announcement over MS/Sony/Nintendo.

1. They could not stop Windows develpement (at least not immediately)
2. They would probably want to keep some things multiplat for the profits, and keep some good exclusives back to push hardware.
3. I am pretty sure the NFL agreement will not allow Madden to be an exclusive.
4. This is the most compelling and frightening rumor for Apple to enter the market.

knowing apple they would hold their own show which would be sold out at the same time as E3 .... just so you would have to make a choice.... also if i could afford it i would go.... im still sad i will never see steve give a mac world key note, could finally afford to go this year and the guys sick.... and they canceled future mac worlds .... oh well 

I'm not sure as to what ends...maybe to get more games for the Mac computers? This would be a strange move, as apple has no compentcy or focus in this area. This would be like M$ taking over a movie studio.

That IS an interesting rumour and I've been saying that due to the success of the Wii others would be tempted to test the waters of the market but wow, Apple buying EA? That would blow my mind.

Even if they don't make Sports exclusive, they could steal some of 360's best titles (Left4Dead, Mass Effect) and guarantee an Apple platform a very, very solid 1st party line-up of games. It would make them an instant competitor in the market and be bad, bad, bad news for Sony who's still bleeding and not up for increased competition.

valve is not owned by ea. they just let them publish there games

!!! wow that would be a huge deal!

I don't think this makes too much sense unless Apple is trying to support all all the consoles and expand into iPod. EA will be valued based on its total cross platform revenues.

From a shareholder perspective this would be too much of a cost to take them over and go with a single console. In the end the shareholders vote and they would not agree to a massively inflated price based on multi-platform sales unless the plan was to continue in that direction.

did some research apple has cash on had to buy actvision-blizzard , take two, EA. lock stock and barrel.


I used market cap +20% as the sell price for each company vs apples cash on hand......

well damn the 35 billion does not seem to have a source, lattest sourced artical has them with 25.65 billion still more then enough cash   http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=Aapl   

edit

actvision-blizzard  14. 21 B cap

Take two 727.28 million cap

EA  6.77 billion cap

apples   117.62 cap

EA is the most likely target. They are quite a big player on the mobile phone scene and their company is seriously under valued when you consider the I.P. and studios they hold.