Pick one of either Electronic Arts or Zynga, and analyze within 1 to 2 pages the success of their more recent acquisitions (within the last 5 years). I don’t expect a deep financial analysis–this is more of a post mortem from an outside investor view–what did they say when they bought the company and what happened–better, worse, on target, Use both quantitative (look at the footnotes in the financial statements) as well as qualitative factors. Were employees happy (Glassdoor, etc.) after the merger? Did games slip? Was there turnover in the teams? Did quality suffer (metacritic)? Do fewer players play the game/monetization down (App Annie/Sensor Tower/VG Chartz)? And how has the acquirers stock price performed after the mergers (not immediately, but over time)? And have there been goodwill write-offs/impairments? Both of these companies have done several large deals over the past few years, so you have plenty to work with. Here’s the simple outline:
–List the major deals and the prices
–Do an overall assessment of whether the deals have been successful, unsuccessful, hit and miss or the jury’s still out.
Support your conclusions with some facts from the different sources above as well as the SEC filings and merger announcement information. There’s also analyst reports available. Again, don’t go overboard–just looking here for some qualitative analysis to get you thinking outside of strict numbers.
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