EA paid up to $620 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding to get their hands on the companies, They also gave $155 million in equity to "certain employees of VG Holding" and is lending the company up to $35 million.

I suppose this news isn't exactly shocking since John Riccitello headed up Elevation Partners, along with Apple's Fred Anderson and Bono.

Sure Riccitiello likened VG Holdings to Pixar, saying that the company would have the ability to cut bigger deals with the likes of... EA, but I guess they made an offer too good to refuse.


EA To Acquire BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios

Leaders in RPG, Action and Adventure Genres; Ten Franchises in Development - Six Wholly Owned

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced an agreement with Elevation Partners to acquire VG Holding Corp. -- the owner of both BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios. This acquisition gives EA a strong competitive position in key genres in interactive entertainment: action, adventure and role-playing games. The two studios have been recognized for creating some of the highest-quality games in the industry.

BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios have ten franchises under development, including six wholly owned games. BioWare Corp. is currently developing the highly anticipated Mass Effect, which will be published by Microsoft in November, and is in the early development stages of a massively multiplayer online game. Pandemic Studios is redefining open-world games with its upcoming Mercenaries 2: World in Flames™ and Saboteur™, in addition to several unannounced projects.

Pandemic Studios and BioWare Corp. employ roughly 800 people across four studios located in Edmonton, Canada; Los Angeles; Austin; and Brisbane, Australia.

"These are two of the most respected studios in the industry and I'm glad to be working with them again. They'll make a strong contribution to our strategic growth initiatives on quality, online gaming and developing new intellectual properties," said John Riccitiello, EA's Chief Executive Officer. "We also expect this will drive long-term value for our shareholders."

Pandemic Studios is led by Andrew Goldman, Josh Resnick and Greg Borrud. BioWare Corp. is jointly led by Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka. These teams will join the EA™ Games Label run by Frank Gibeau, President of EA Games.

"Pandemic Studios remains focused on attracting the best talent and creating blockbuster action games," said Josh Resnick, President and Co-founder of Pandemic Studios. "As a worldwide publishing leader, EA represents the ideal partner to bring our titles to market as global entertainment events."

"We are truly excited by John Riccitiello's new vision for EA," said Ray Muzyka, Co-founder and CEO of BioWare Corp. "This vision is consistent with BioWare's focus on crafting the highest quality story-driven games in the world. It will enable us to further the careers of the passionate, creative and hard working teams at BioWare Edmonton and BioWare Austin."

EA will pay up to $620 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding Corp. and will issue up to an additional $155 million in equity to certain employees of VG Holding Corp., which will be subject to time-based or performance-based vesting criteria. EA will also assume outstanding VG Holding Corp. stock options. In addition, EA has agreed to lend VG Holding Corp. up to $35 million through the closing of the acquisition.

Transaction and Financial Information

* The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.
* The transaction is expected to close in January 2008.
* On a GAAP basis, the acquisition is expected to be dilutive to EA's fiscal 2008 results by approximately $0.30 to $0.40 due to non-recurring acquisition-related charges, stock-based compensation and amortization of intangible assets. This amount is a preliminary estimate based on currently-available information and is subject to change.
* On a non-GAAP basis, the acquisition is expected to be dilutive to EA's fiscal 2008 fourth quarter results by approximately $0.05. This amount is a preliminary estimate based on currently-available information and is subject to change

This sould be a good thing for bioware... seeing as bioware are the ones who made awesome RPG titles... a little more cash injection would do them good.

Um, EA did a lot more than the C&C series.

You can't argue with successes like Need For Speed, Medal of Honour, etc. (even if the last few in the series were rubbish).

EA will pay up to $620 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding Corp. and will issue up to an additional $155 million in equity to certain employees of VG Holding Corp., which will be subject to time-based or performance-based vesting criteria. EA will also assume outstanding VG Holding Corp. stock options. In addition, EA has agreed to lend VG Holding Corp. up to $35 million through the closing of the acquisition.

[Generals: Its ok, but story = random
Zero Hour: SUCKS (Scud bug, china hacker income glitch, minigunner that kills king raptors etc etc)
CnC 3: Going downhull fast and needs a MAJOR patch (altho 1.09's balance tweaks did help alot)
Kanes wrath: Who knows?

EA is like aids, at first the experiance is awesome but after a few years you come to relize: OMG WHY DID I DO THIS?!

QUOTE(LegendofMax @ Nov 12 2007, 02:47 PM) *
[Generals: Its ok, but story = random
Zero Hour: SUCKS (Scud bug, china hacker income glitch, minigunner that kills king raptors etc etcCnC 3: Going downhull fast and needs a MAJOR patch (altho 1.09's balance tweaks did help alot)
Kanes wrath: Who knows?

EA is like aids, at first the experiance is awesome but after a few years you come to relize: OMG WHY DID I DO THIS?!

Generals and Zero Hour were never made for the single player aspect.

EA tried their hands at the multiplayer aspect, possibly the Competitive side.

CNC3 going downhill? Based on what do you make that assumption?

Kanes Wrath will be excellent (going out on a limb here) but possibly bringing back the CNC goodness we were used to.

Not EVERY EA tittle is shit, there are some of them that are fairly good (the last MOH, named Airborne was very good).