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Electronic Arts Buys Stake in a Rival Game Maker in France

Electronic Arts, a maker of video games, said yesterday that it bought 19.9 percent of a French competitor, Ubisoft Entertainment, the maker of games based on Tom Clancy novels. Ubisoft shares had their biggest gain ever on the news.

Warren C. Jenson, the chief financial officer of Electronic Arts, which is based in Redwood City, Calif., said the company acquired the stake from Talpa Beheer, the investment company of the Dutch billionaire John de Mol.

Mr. Jensen declined to say what the company paid, or whether it planned to buy more shares.

Ubisoft said it considered the purchase by Electronic Arts to be “hostile.”

An analyst at Fideuram Wargny, Jean-Michel Salvador, said, “Ubisoft is an ideal target because they have a good development capacity.”

“Electronic Arts is built essentially on sports and movie-based adventures,” he said. Ubisoft’s action games are “the type of games they lack.”