EA Buys Bejeweled-Maker PopCap In Deal Worth Up To $1.3 Billion 104
donniebaseball23 writes "Weeks ago, rumors were that Electronic Arts had stepped up to the plate to buy mobile/casual gaming publisher PopCap, developer of titles such as Bejeweled and Plants vs Zombies. Today, EA has confirmed that it has purchased PopCap for a final sum of $650 million and $100 million in shares of EA common stock. There's also the possibility for up to $550 million in earn-outs for hitting 2013 financial milestones. That would bring the price to a whopping $1.3 billion. 'We picked EA because they have recast their culture around making great digital games,' said David Roberts, CEO of PopCap. 'By working with EA, we'll scale our games and services to deliver more social, mobile, casual fun to an even bigger, global audience.'"
More broadly, EA's plan for PopCap is: "don't break it."
sounds pretty awesome (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm a throwback to when EA was making games for me on my Apple //c. Back in the day they ruled the roost for awesome games. I don't know if they were making most of them in-house or were just buying and slapping their logo on them, but almost every one of them was a winner.
Sounds like a good idea. Hopefully they intend to apply more PopCap to EA, than EA to PopCap. Usually the other way around spells disaster. IMHO EA is on the decline because they've lost touch with their customers. PopCap on the other hand, has a firm grip on that magic in today's market. That's where EA stands to benefit the most from with this move.
Re:Good for Pop-Cap (Score:4, Interesting)
They won't necessarily break it.
Sure, they broke Bullfrog, maker of classics like Populous and Theme Park and Syndicate.
And they turned the innovative Maxis into a factory for churning out neighbor-killing simulations.
And they killed Westwood, creators of the wildly successful Command & Conquer franchise.
And they wrecked multiple Ultima titles after acquiring Origin.
But Bioware's been doing okay under them, so far. So maybe there's hope?