THQ Can Grow without Further Acquisitions
By Chris on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 10:45 PM PST In Game Companies, Games Industry, THQ
Gaming behemoths Electronic Arts and Activision might see acquisitions as a necessary move to keep up with each other, but THQ doesn’t necessarily feel that it needs to follow suit – although they did purchase Big Huge Games in January. CEO Brian Farrell spoke with Reuters about how opportunities are arising as a result of the respective moves of Activision and EA.
“We are seeing some opportunities in the marketplace given the two transactions going on,” Farrell explained. “It’s going to create some opportunities because we are actively looking at every developer, every license out there and with our size now we can be more aggressive than larger, slower firms.”
And while opportunities might present themselves, that doesn’t necessarily force THQ’s hand. Farrell said, “M&A is not a required or necessary thing in order to grow.”
According to Reuters, THQ’s stock has risen 23% in the last month, but is still down 35% from a year ago. Farrell declined to comment on any specifics on the subject.
I think THQ has a fairly good spot in the industry currently, and if they were to go out and make major acquisitions, it would only put more pressure on them to outperform companies like EA. And at this point, that just doesn’t seem possible. Unless your name is Activision-Blizzard, of course.
