List of acquisitions by Electronic Arts

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 logo
EA headquarters in Redwood City, California

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 February 2015, Electronic Arts' largest acquisition is the purchase of VG Holding Corp., the then-owner of video game developers BioWare and Pandemic Studios, for $775 million. 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. Some of these companies or their respective studios, however, are now defunct. 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]

Key
General
† Defunct
* Electronic Arts sold stake

Acquisitions
Date Company Business Country Value (USD) Derived Studios References
1987 Batteries Included† Hardware and software developer  CAN — — [13][14]
July 1, 1991 Distinctive Software Inc. Video game developer  CAN — EA Vancouver [15]
September 10, 1992 Origin Systems† Science fiction space sim & Fantasy role-playing game developer  USA $35,000,000 — [16]
November 14, 1994 DROsoft Software distributor  ESP — — [17]
January 6, 1995 Bullfrog Productions† Video game developer  UK — — [18][19]
March 8, 1995 Kingsoft GmbH† Software distributor  GER — — [20]
January 29, 1996 Manley & Associates Video game developer  USA — EA Seattle [21]
June 4, 1997 Maxis† Video game developer and publisher  USA $125,000,000 Maxis[note 1] [22][23][24]
April 2, 1998 Tiburon Entertainment Video game developer  USA — EA Tiburon [25]
April 8, 1998 Vision Software Software distributor  RSA — Vision Software [26]
July 28, 1998 ABC Software Software distributor   CH — ABC Software [27]
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]
September 8, 1999 PlayNation Developer of online entertainment  USA — PlayNation [30]
November 22, 1999 Kesmai† Video game developer and online game publisher  USA — Kesmai [31]
February 24, 2000 DreamWorks Interactive Video game developer  USA — Danger Close Games† [32][33]
February 28, 2001 Pogo.com Family games website  USA — Pogo.com [34]
June 11, 2002 Black Box Games† Sports and racing video game developer  CAN — Quicklime Games† [35][36][37]
October 16, 2003 Studio 33 Racing video game developer  UK — EA Northwest [38]
February 13, 2004 NuFX Sports video game developer  USA — EA Chicago† [8][39]
July 28, 2004 Criterion Software Video game developer  UK $48,000,000 Criterion Software [40] [41]
July 27, 2005 Hypnotix Video game developer  USA — — [42]
December 8, 2005 JAMDAT Mobile Mobile entertainment developer  USA $680,000,000 EA Mobile [2]
July 20, 2006 Mythic Entertainment Computer game developer  USA — EA Mythic† [43][44]
August 23, 2006 Phenomic Game Development Real-time strategy game developer  GER — EA Phenomic† [45][46]
October 2, 2006 Digital Illusions CE (DICE) Video game developer  SWE — EA DICE [47]
November 30, 2006 Headgate Studios Video game developer  USA — EA Salt Lake† [48]
February 12, 2007 SingShot Media Social network service  USA — Sims on Stage [49][50]
October 5, 2007 Super Computer International Computer software developer  USA — — [51]
October 11, 2007 VG Holding Corp. Holding company of video game developers  USA $775,000,000 BioWarePandemic Studios† [52]
May 21, 2008 Hands-On Mobile Mobile video game developer and publisher  ROK — EA Mobile Korea [53]
June 3, 2008 ThreeSF Social network service  USA — — [54]
December 2, 2008 J2MSoft Computer game developer  ROK — — [55]
Q1 Fiscal 2010 J2Play Social network service  CAN — — [56]
November 9, 2009 Playfish† Social network game developer  UK $400,000,000 — [57][58][59]
October 20, 2010 Chillingo Mobile video game publisher  UK $20,000,000 — [60]
May 3, 2011 Mobile Post Production Mobile video game developer and publisher  USA — — [61]
May 4, 2011 Firemint Mobile video game developer and publisher  AUS — — [62]
July 12, 2011 PopCap Games Video game developer and publisher  USA $750,000,000[note 3] San Francisco & SeattleDublin† & Vancouver† [37][63][64]
June 1, 2012 ESN Social gaming product developers  SWE — — [65]
December 1, 2017 Respawn Entertainment Video game developer  USA $315,000,000[note 4] — [66][67]
May 1, 2018 GameFly Game streaming  USA — [68]
July 9, 2018 Industrial Toys Mobile video game developer  USA — [69]

Stakes
Date Company Business Country Value References
January 25, 1995 Visual Concepts Entertainment[note 5] Video game developer  USA — [70]
May 9, 1995 NovaLogic†[note 6] Video game developer and publisher  USA — [71]
March 11, 1997 Accolade†[note 7] Video game developer and publisher  USA — [72][73]
April 3, 1997 Mpath Interactive†[note 8] Computer game and online company  USA — [74][75]
August 4, 1998 Kodiak Interactive Software Studios, Inc.†[note 9] Video game developer  USA — [76][77]
December 24, 2004 Ubisoft*[note 10] Video game developer and publisher  FRA 68.9 million euros [10][11][78]

Notes
  1. While Maxis Emeryville was closed, other studios of Maxis were consolidated into other existing studios of EA.
  2. Staff who choose to remain were absorbed into EA Los Angeles.
  3. Includes $650 million in cash and the issuing of $100 million in EA common stock to certain shareholders of PopCap Games. Does not include additional cash possibly received based on earnings before interest and taxes milestones through December 2013.
  4. Includes $151 million in cash and $164 million in equity.
  5. EA purchased a minority stake, later sold to Take 2 Interactive.
  6. EA purchased a minority stake, yet there is no mention of it on EA's Investor Page. Later sold to THQ Nordic in 2016
  7. EA purchased a minority stake. Later purchased by Infogrames.
  8. EA purchased a minority stake. On June 18, 2001, it was acquired by GameSpy and MPlayer.com was merged with GameSpy Arcade.
  9. EA purchased a minority stake, but it later merged with Acclaim Entertainment.
  10. EA initially purchased a 19.9% stake then-valued at 68.9 million euros, but then sold its remaining stake in July 2010 for 122 million U.S. dollars (94 million euros).

References
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