EA shares have jumped 8 percent after reports broke suggesting Korean publisher Nexon has made a bid to buyout the American giant.

Details are thin, but the South Korean press is cited as igniting the chatter – later picked up in a Bloomberg video report – with shares in EA rising by $1.22 to $16.23 in response.

Money matters

The two businesses are certainly compatible in a strategic sense, with Nexon's strong hand in the free-to-play market on PC balancing out with EA's traditional focus on console and, more recently, mobile.

However, commentators are already questioning whether Nexon has the financial clout to wholly acquire EA. Nexon, which floated on the Tokyo stock exchange at the end of 2011, has a market cap of around $7.2 billion as of December.

EA's own market cap comes in at the $5.2 billion mark, though in terms of annual sales is around three times larger than its potential suitor.

Nexon recently made headlines on Bloomberg after claiming it was in talks to buy smartphone game developers, though the company refused to name any specific targets.

[source: Forbes]