PopCap In Late Stage Acquisition Discussions With EA For $1 Billion+

[C~M]

PopCap Games is in late stage acquisition discussions for a sum of over $1 billion — we've now heard from two sources that the buyer is Electronic Arts.

The high price of the deal ($1+ billion) means that this would be a huge bet for EA — we're talking over 13% of the company's market cap. But we're hearing that this is a Hail Mary pass from EA to break into mobile and social gaming — areas where the company hasn't done nearly as well as it has in the console arena.

Possible logic behind the deal: Electronic Arts has some successful franchises that cater to casual users (including The Sims), but many of its successful properties appeal to the hardcore crowd. This is problematic on mobile, where iOS's top grossing apps are dominated by Angry Birds, Zynga, Pocket Gems, and other casual games. PopCap could help with that — their arsenal of games includes Bejeweled and Plants vs Zombies, each of which is a powerhouse in mobile and casual gaming.

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http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/22/sources-popcap-buyer-is-ea/

[snap20]

Good...maybe they'll stop wasting time developing games like "Scrabble Sprint" and "Monopoly Classic" for facebook and mobile and just use the Pop cap games. lol

[Joe C]

Good...maybe they'll stop wasting time developing games like "Scrabble Sprint" and "Monopoly Classic" for facebook and mobile and just use the Pop cap games. lol

Whatever gets me badges. Also, how about some RANK BADGES for iPhone Games? Being able to activate prior challenges on the iPhone?

[harley89]

@#$%%^%&* PopCap makes great games EA will screw them up big time

[Sue]

In the letter to the editors is this....


What Does PopCap Acquisition Mean for Pogo?


Hello,

Now that EA has purchased PopCap, will there be PopCap games that will become Club Pogo Games? Will they include ranks/badges?

A Club Pogo Member

Editor: Indeed, EA did acquire PopCap, which is awesome on many levels. And, while it is way too early to speculate on what this might mean for Pogo, I can say that we are exploring the possibilities for at least one of their games for little Pogo!