Electronic Arts is an American company that is a developer, marketer, publisher, and distributor of video games, that was founded in 1982. Products of the company include EA Sports franchises, Sims , and other titles on both handheld and home gaming consoles. [1]
Electronic Arts often acquires new companies to expand or add to new product lines. For instance, EA chairman and chief executive officer Larry Probst said after the acquisition of JAMDAT Mobile that "we intend to build a leading global position in the [...] business of providing games on mobile phones". [2] EA followed through with this later, making the company into EA Mobile, and allowing people to purchase and download content produced by them directly onto their phones. [1] After the acquisition of Origin Systems, some staff in that company claimed that Electronic Arts initially gave them more resources, but allowed little latitude if employees made a mistake, and in some cases no longer trusted them, and even worked against them. [3] [4] EA has shut down entire companies or the studios thereof after acquiring them, including the studio DICE Canada, Origin Systems, EA Chicago (NuFX), and Pandemic Studios. [5] [6] [7] [8] Gaming blogger Brian Crecente has said that fears that EA doesn't care about the quality of their products after they are acquired are debatable. [9]
As of April 2021, Electronic Arts' largest acquisition is the purchase of Glu Mobile, for $2.4 billion. Of the 39 companies acquired by EA, 20 are based in the U.S., five in the United Kingdom, six in Continental Europe, and eight elsewhere. The majority of these companies and studios are now defunct, with some having been merged into other entities. Of the six companies which EA purchased a stake in, two remaining companies are based in the U.S., while three other U.S. companies are defunct. After acquiring a 19.9% stake in France-based Ubisoft in 2004, EA sold a remaining 14.8% stake in it in 2010. [10] [11]
Each acquisition listed is for the entire company, unless otherwise noted. The acquisition date listed is the date of the agreement between Electronic Arts (EA) and the subject of the acquisition. Unless otherwise noted, the value of each acquisition is listed in U.S. dollars, because EA is headquartered in the U.S. If the value of the acquisition is not listed, then it is undisclosed. If the EA service that is derived from the acquired company is known, then it is also listed. According to data from Pitch Book via VentureBeat, the company has spent about $2.9 Billion on its 10 biggest acquisitions since 1992. [12]
† | Defunct |
‡ | Merged into surviving group |
* | Electronic Arts sold stake |
Date | Company | Business | Country | Value (USD) | Derived Studios | References | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1987 | Batteries Included† | Hardware and software developer | CAN | — | — | [13] [14] | |
2 | July 1, 1991 | Distinctive Software Inc.‡ | Video game developer | CAN | — | EA Vancouver | [15] | |
3 | September 10, 1992 | Origin Systems† | Video game developer | USA | $35,000,000 | — | [16] | |
4 | November 14, 1994 | DROsoft† | Software distributor | ESP | — | — | [17] | |
5 | January 6, 1995 | Bullfrog Productions† | Video game developer | UK | — | — | [18] [19] | |
6 | March 8, 1995 | Kingsoft GmbH† | Software distributor | GER | — | — | [20] | |
7 | January 29, 1996 | Manley & Associates‡ | Video game developer | USA | — | EA Seattle | [21] | |
8 | June 4, 1997 | Maxis† | Video game developer and publisher | USA | $125,000,000 | Maxis [note 1] | [22] [23] [24] | |
9 | April 2, 1998 | Tiburon Entertainment‡ | Video game developer | USA | — | EA Tiburon | [25] | |
10 | April 8, 1998 | Vision Software‡ | Software distributor | RSA | — | Vision Software | [26] | |
11 | July 28, 1998 | ABC Software‡ | Software distributor | CH | — | ABC Software | [27] | |
12 | August 17, 1998 | Westwood Studios; Virgin Interactive's North American Operations, Burst Studios† | Computer and video game developers | USA | $122,500,000 | EA Pacific† [note 2] | [28] [29] | |
13 | September 8, 1999 | PlayNation‡ | Developer of online entertainment | USA | — | PlayNation | [30] | |
14 | November 22, 1999 | Kesmai† | Video game developer and online game publisher | USA | — | — | [31] | |
15 | February 24, 2000 | DreamWorks Interactive† | Video game developer | USA | — | Danger Close Games† | [32] [33] | |
16 | February 28, 2001 | Pogo.com | Family games website | USA | — | — | [34] | |
17 | June 11, 2002 | Black Box Games† | Sports and racing video game developer | CAN | — | Quicklime Games† | [35] [36] [37] | |
18 | October 16, 2003 | Studio 33‡ | Racing video game developer | UK | — | EA Northwest | [38] | |
19 | February 13, 2004 | NuFX† | Sports video game developer | USA | — | EA Chicago† | [8] [39] | |
20 | July 28, 2004 | Criterion Software | Video game developer | UK | $48,000,000 | — | [40] [41] | |
21 | July 27, 2005 | Hypnotix† | Video game developer | USA | — | EA Tiburon | [42] | |
22 | December 8, 2005 | JAMDAT Mobile‡ | Mobile entertainment developer | USA | $680,000,000 | EA Mobile | [2] | |
23 | July 20, 2006 | Mythic Entertainment† | Computer game developer | USA | — | EA Mythic† | [43] [44] | |
24 | August 23, 2006 | Phenomic Game Development† | Real-time strategy game developer | GER | — | EA Phenomic† | [45] [46] | |
25 | October 2, 2006 | Digital Illusions CE (DICE)‡ [note 3] | Video game developer | SWE | — | EA DICE | [47] | |
26 | November 30, 2006 | Headgate Studios† | Video game developer | USA | — | EA Salt Lake† | [48] | |
27 | February 12, 2007 | SingShot Media‡ | Social network service | USA | — | Sims on Stage | [49] [50] | |
28 | October 5, 2007 | Super Computer International‡ | Computer software developer | USA | — | EA Online Technology‡ | [51] | |
29 | October 11, 2007 | VG Holding Corp.† | Holding company of video game developers | USA | $775,000,000 | BioWare | Pandemic Studios† | [52] |
30 | May 21, 2008 | Hands-On Mobile‡ | Mobile video game developer and publisher | ROK | — | EA Mobile Korea | [53] | |
31 | June 3, 2008 | ThreeSF† | Social network service | USA | — | — | [54] | |
32 | December 2, 2008 | J2MSoft† | Computer game developer | ROK | — | — | [55] | |
33 | Q1 Fiscal 2010 | J2Play† | Social network service | CAN | — | — | [56] | |
34 | November 9, 2009 | Playfish† | Social network game developer | UK | $400,000,000 | — | [57] [58] [59] | |
35 | October 20, 2010 | Chillingo† | Mobile video game publisher | UK | $20,000,000 | — | [60] [61] | |
36 | May 3, 2011 | Mobile Post Production | Mobile video game developer and publisher | USA | — | — | [62] | |
37 | May 4, 2011 | Firemint | Mobile video game developer and publisher | AUS | — | — | [63] | |
38 | July 12, 2011 | PopCap Games | Video game developer and publisher | USA | $750,000,000 [note 4] | San Francisco & Seattle | Dublin† & Vancouver† | [37] [64] [65] |
39 | August 11, 2011 | Bight Games‡ | Trade Wars (mobile game) | CAN | — | Red Crow Studios | [66] | |
40 | June 1, 2012 | ESN | Social gaming product developers | SWE | — | — | [67] | |
41 | December 1, 2017 | Respawn Entertainment | Video game developer | USA | $315,000,000 [note 5] | — | [68] [69] | |
42 | May 1, 2018 | GameFly | Game streaming | USA | — | — | [70] | |
43 | July 9, 2018 | Industrial Toys† | Mobile video game developer | USA | — | — | [71] | |
44 | February 18, 2021 | Codemasters | Video game developer and publisher | UK | $1,200,000,000 | — | [72] | |
45 | April 29, 2021 | Glu Mobile | Mobile video game developer and publisher | USA | $2,400,000,000 | EA Mobile | [73] | |
46 | May 5, 2021 | Metalhead Software | Video game developer | CAN | — | — | [74] | |
47 | June 23, 2021 | Playdemic | Mobile video game developer | UK | $1,400,000,000 | — | [75] |
Total:47 companies
Date | Company | Business | Country | Value | References |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
January 25, 1995 | Visual Concepts Entertainment [note 6] | Video game developer | USA | — | [76] |
May 9, 1995 | NovaLogic† [note 7] | Video game developer and publisher | USA | — | [77] |
March 11, 1997 | Accolade† [note 8] | Video game developer and publisher | USA | — | [78] [79] |
April 3, 1997 | Mpath Interactive† [note 9] | Computer game and online company | USA | — | [80] [81] |
August 4, 1998 | Kodiak Interactive Software Studios, Inc.† [note 10] | Video game developer | USA | — | [82] [83] |
December 24, 2004 | Ubisoft* [note 11] | Video game developer and publisher | FRA | 68.9 million euros | [10] [11] [84] |
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