Earlier this afternoon, the stocks of Electronic Arts (EA) had a shocking increase of 8.1 percent. Following this market surge, there is now unsubstantiated talk of Microsoft Corp acquring the video game publisher.

However, there is some debate over whether or not EA could be a potential target for Microsoft. Frederic Ruffy, an options strategist from New York, explained, "There's talk that Microsoft might be interested in acquiring Electronic Arts. It's unsubstantiated chatter, but it's out there."

To further deride these claims, Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research claimed that his contacts from Microsoft have shown no intentions of acquiring EA. In response to an inquiry issued by Reuters.com, he wrote, "Our contacts just don't see Microsoft buying Electronic Arts, no synergies whatsoever, and also not Microsoft's corporate primary focus right now."

Recent analyses reveal that smaller video game publishers have been having the largest increases in stocks, indicating them as possible targets for becoming part of Microsoft Game Studios. Most notable of these in the past include Lionhead Studios and Bungie Studios.

Source: The Wall Street Journal