Wall Street Journal To Disney: "Buy EA"

The Wall Street Journal has some advice — we're guessing unsolicited — for Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger: Maybe it's time to buy Electronic Arts. Why? Well, the price might be right (right now) given that EA's stock has taken a pretty serious hit lately, partly due to general economic turmoil and on second quarter corporate earnings from the Madden publisher that WSJ calls "disappointing." Why does it makes sense? WSJ notes two potential "win-wins." First, the Disney-owned ESPN, which could benefit both the sports cable channel and the Madden NFL series. Second, WSJ argues that Disney could save at least some of the "$200 million it spends annually to develop its own games" at Disney Interactive Studios. The internal Disney studio currently works on properties like High School Musical and Tinkerbell. Snatching up EA could also mean plenty of new, internally developed intellectual property for Disney and all of its subsidiaries. Properties like Mirror's Edge, Dead Space and Army of Two could be future Disney Pictures projects. As Dante's Inferno could have. We suppose Disney could send property the other way, too, with future Pixar titles going to EA instead of where they're currently housed at THQ. It would be one big orgy of commercial appeal for both parties. The Wall Street Journal points out that EA's market cap is at $7.7 billion, a serious drop from the $19 billion of a few years ago. That's a bargain, it says, one that maybe Disney should go for. We'd seriously hope that, if they did, they'd retain all those smart EA people turning the company's image and quality around. Disney Could Raise Its Game With EA [WSJ - subscription required]