Electronic Arts Inc. today announced it has acquired social games developer Playfish. The terms of the acquisition were a cash payment of approximately US$275 million with an additional variable cash consideration of up to $100 million, contingent upon the achievement of certain performance milestones through December 31, 2011, plus $25 million in equity-based retention agreements with employees.
Playfish will operate within EA Interactive, a division of EA focused on the web and on wireless, EA said today in a statement.
"Social gaming, with its emphasis on friends and community, is seeing tremendous growth and this is the right time to invest to strengthen our participation in this space," Barry Cottle, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA Interactive said. Kristian Segerstrale, CEO and Co-founder of Playfish added his comments, saying "EA is the ideal opportunity for us to push forward our goals to lead in the social entertainment evolution on a faster and much larger scale."
The deal, which had been rumored for weeks, is in some respects reminiscent of EA's earlier acquisition of mobile game studio Jamdat. In that move, EA established via an acquisition a presence in a game sector it had long sought, albeit unsuccessfully, to succeed in. Today's acquisition accomplishes a similar goal, only now it is social games sector EA gains a powerful foothold in.
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