Electronic Arts surges on report Amazon preparing to acquire game publisher

Electronic Arts Inc (NASDAQ: EA) surged almost 6.5% after USA Today reported that Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) could announce an offer to acquire the game developer as soon as Friday.

Although the report was published by GLHF, a gaming and esports site and content partner of USA Today’s For the Win column, the news organization later added a note at the top of the original story saying that it “violated our editorial standards regarding the use of unnamed and unvetted sources,” and the language about a pending announcement had been removed.

Shares of EA, the publisher of hit games Apex Legends, FIFA and Madden titles, were up 6.5% to $135.85 in New York, valuing the Redwood City, California-based company at almost $38 billion.

It has been an exceptional year for deals in the video game industry, with Microsoft Corp’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) pending $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard Inc (NASDAQ: ATVI).