14 DAY TRIAL // In June of 2008 Electronic Arts' William 'Bing' Gordon, who is one of the co-founders of the videogames company and now servers as CCO, will leave the company to join Venture capital firm KPCB in the position of partner.
William Gordon has had a very deep connection with a multitude of Electronic Arts initiatives. He was with the company from the beginning and he was one of the people involved in the creation of such important franchises as Madden NFL, The Sims and Need for Speed. Over the years, Gordon moved through various positions, like marketing executive vice president, executive vice president of Electronic Arts Studios and senior vice president.
On the initiative to move to KPCB, he said that "There is a new generation who have grown up 'always on, always digital.' Driven by their creativity and new usage habits, entertainment and communications are on the verge of previously unimaginable changes. Ever since KPCB funded Electronic Arts' initial business plan in 1982, I have watched the KPCB team find and support brilliant company-makers to harness disruptive digital technologies that benefit people. I cannot wait to join the firm, and work directly with an all-new generation of entrepreneurs."
Other than funding the original expansion of Electronic Arts, KPCB has a deep affinity to the new technologies market. Their most recent initiative was to partner up with Apple and launch the iFund, a 100 million strong fund that aims to attract third party developers to the Apple iPhone platform. A significant portion of this fund might make its way into the hands of Electronic Arts, if they manage to port the upcoming Spore to the Apple smartphone platform in time for a September 2008 release.
Other companies that have benefited from KPCB funds are AOL, Amazon.com, Compaq Computer, Genentech, Google, Intuit, Netscape, Lotus, Sun Microsystems, Symantec and VeriSign.