Newell: Valve would likely "disintegrate" before a sale
Independently minded staff would leave before any acquisition, says co-founder
Valve's Gabe Newell has said that the company would more likely "disintegrate" than be acquired by a larger business.
Speaking to the NY Times, the co-founder of the Half-Life studio and Steam business said it was much more likely that talent at the 300-strong business would prefer to leave rather than ride out the years following an acquisition.
"It's way more likely we would head in that direction than say, 'Let's find some giant company that wants to cash us out and wait two or three years to have our employment agreements terminate,'" he offered.
According to the report, Battlefield and Madden publisher Electronic Arts has made enquiries about buying Valve in the past, with an unnamed source suggesting EA would have valued the company at well over $1 billion. Prolific industry commentator Michael Pachter estimated Valve could be worth around $2.5 billion.
The company famously has a flat management structure that favours self starters, and hires individuals for their overall talents rather than specific skills.
Not surprising, given how progressive Valve's ethos is compared to mostly every other company out there. And a turn-about from 4 years ago, where Doug Lombardi said he'd be happy to have a conversation about a buyout. Goes to show how much the company has grown (in both financial and development terms).
Also, I would've thought that the most note-worthy things about that NYT article would be the talk of hardware, given how crazy people get when the prospect of Valve doing hardware is broached. The fact that Valve are saying they "hadn’t decided whether it would make glasses itself. But its ultimate goal is to share its designs freely so other hardware companies can make glasses, too." is interesting, no? It shows that Valve are focussing more on the straight R&D aspects, rather than R&D and manufacture.
Posted:8 months ago