EA fails to become this year's worst US company
In a surprising first round loss to Time Warner Cable, EA won't manage a three-peat of its difficult crown in the Consumerist's famed competition to find the worst of the worst.
It's hard to be the worst all the time.
Ask the Kansas City Royals, the Oakland Raiders and the "Real Housewives of Atlanta."
At some point, someone's going to have a worse day than you. Or worse year.
This is something EA has just learned, having failed in its attempt to three-peat as the Consumerist's "Worst Company in America."
In an upset that is as stunning as it's humorous, EA was defeated by (or vanquished, depending on your perspective) Time Warner Cable in the very first round.
The Consumerist was itself trying to catch its breath, as it reported: "Despite its cock-up of the Battlefield 4 and Titanfall releases, EA just didn't have the all-out support that it had received in the previous two tournaments."
And what had Time Warner Cable done to achieve sudden greatness? Said the Consumerist: "Time Warner Cable has always merited a spot in the WCIA brackets, the company's pending merger with former WCIA champ Comcast undoubtedly played into readers' voting decisions."
Last year, EA positively romped home to win the crown. It defeated Bank of America in the final, with a margin of victory that was almost Putinesque.
Then, its COO Peter Moore tried to explain away the obvious injustice.
This year, perhaps EA will throw a vast costume party and invite all those who voted for Time Warner Cable to dress as their favorite gaming characters.
The tech industry is still very well represented in the Consumerist's competition. Comcast, PayPal/eBay, Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon, Direct TV, Yahoo, and AT&T are among those with battles to come.
I wonder which of these might prove to be worse than Abercrombie and Fitch, Walmart, and Koch Industries -- three of the more traditional companies that remain poised for greater (or worse) things.