Douglas Creutz winced when news of Electronic Arts Inc.’s $55 billion acquisition landed in his inbox. For the TD Cowen equity analyst, the largest leveraged buyout in history meant losing one of Wall Street’s clearest windows into the $400 billion video game industry. In the worst case, “investors might say, ‘Jeez, I’d rather spend my time in an industry where there’s more major names to choose from,’ ” he says.
EA’s privatization, announced in September, marks a watershed for the sector, one that could either extend gaming’s remarkable stock rally or reveal its limits. From Wall Street to ...
