14 DAY TRIAL // Video game publisher Electronic Arts has announced that it has entered into an agreement to purchase developer PopCap for the initial sum of 750 million dollars, with the deal set to close during the month of August.
The publisher says that it will initially pay 650 million dollars in cash to those at PopCap while another 100 million will be delivered as common Electronic Arts stock and the company might get access to another 550 million dollars before 2013 as long as it meets certain performance milestones.
The move from EA comes as the company continues to push in the social and mobile gaming space, which it entered during 2009 when it acquired Playfish.
PopCap has created a number of hits, including the Bejeweled series and Plants vs. Zombies, and will probably continue to deliver the same experience in the short term.
They also own the rights to series like Zuma, Peggle and Bookworm.
John Riccitiello, who is the chief executive officer of Electronic Arts, has stated when the acquisition announcement was made, “EA and PopCap are a compelling combination. PopCap's great studio talent and powerful IP add to EA's momentum and accelerate our drive towards a $1 billion digital business.”
David Roberts, who currently leads PopCap, has added, “We picked EA because they have recast their culture around making great digital games. By working with EA, we'll scale our games and services to deliver more social, mobile, casual fun to an even bigger, global audience.”
Electronic Arts says that it will quickly move to make PopCap games available through more outlets and in more countries.
A number of studies are showing that the free-to-play, social and casual games markets are the ones that will experience significant growth in the coming years and the acquisition of PopCap puts Electronic Arts in a good position to get a good chunk of all the money that will start coming in.