Electronic Arts shares jump amid talks of Amazon buyout

The shares of Electronic Arts zoomed 8 percent on August 26 on media reports that e-commerce giant Amazon would buy out the American game publisher.

Amazon’s was the latest in the big-name list of companies said to be in the race to bag the the "FIFA" and "Apex Legends" owner.  The names of Apple and Disney were doing the rounds a few days ago.

USA Today was among the first to write about Amazon's supposed interest in the company, citing a report from GLHF, a Swedish website dedicated to video games.

CNBC was, however, quick to dispel that rumour, saying multiple sources had told the business channel that Amazon was not going to make an offer for Electronic Arts.

GLHF, a Swedish media company that publishes on USA Today, reported this morning that Amazon is set to buy EA and will announce the news today.

CNBC anchor David Faber scoffed at the report on live TV, mocking GLHF and calling the story false.

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Quite a Friday so far!

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) August 26, 2022

GLHF, too, later updated its story to say it was "unclear" whether the deal would go through.

USA Today updated its version with a bizarre, "Earlier today, GLHF - a gaming/e-sports outlet and content partner of For The Win - ran a version of the story on our website that violated our editorial standards regarding the use of unnamed and unvetted sources. We have updated this story."

Electronic Arts and Amazon have chosen silence and refused to comment amid market and media frenzy.

Sitting on a cash pile of about $37 billion, Amazon has hit the acquisition trail to diversify its business beyond e-commerce and cloud under new Chief Executive Andy Jassy, a Reuters  report said.

The company earlier in August offered to buy robot vacuum cleaner Roomba-maker iRobot Corp for $1.7 billion, just weeks after agreeing to acquire primary care provider One Medical for $3.5 billion, it said.