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EA Acquires BioWare/Pandemic
Friday, October 12, 2007
In an agreement with VC firm Elevation Partners, EA will pay Bioware and Pandemic owner VG Holding Corp.’s stockholders up to $620 million in cash, with an additional $155 million in equity to “certain employees” of VG Holding.

EA will also assume outstanding VG Holding stock options and will lend the holding company up to $35 million through the closing of the transaction.

The total deal amounts to over $800 million.

By comparison, when the two studios were merged by Elevation Partners in 2005, the VC firm said the deal was worth somewhere in the $300 million range.

"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 CEO. "We also expect this will drive long-term value for our shareholders."

BioWare and Pandemic will join the new EA Games divisions, headed up by unit president Frank Gibeau.

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

EA CFO Warren Jenson told Reuters, "We're very excited about the revenue potential. We see that in both '09 and '10 to be in excess of $300 million."

EA said that costs from the acquisition are expected to be dilutive to EA's fiscal 2008 results by approximately $0.30 to $0.40.

As EA points out in a statement, the move also puts a nice little library of wholly-owned properties in the megapublisher's stable. Currently, the two studios combined are working on ten franchises, six of which are wholly-owned.

BioWare, who considers storytelling in games one of its main strengths, is creating the highly-anticipated Xbox 360 RPG Mass Effect (pictured), and is responsible for the revered Star Wars RPG Knights of the Old Republic.

Pandemic is an open-world maverick, having created the Mercenaries franchise, which has an anticipated sequel forthcoming, along with the WWII action title Saboteur.

BioWare CEO Ray Muzyka stated, “[The acquisition] will enable us to further the careers of the passionate, creative and hard working teams at BioWare Edmonton and BioWare Austin."

Pandemic and BioWare employ around 800 employees across four studios in Edmonton, Los Angeles, Austin and Brisbane, Australia.

The deal is expected to close in January 2008.

Source: http://www.next-gen.biz/



Saturday, October 13th @ 6:23 AM
Big Shakey wrote..."and that an opinion i totally agree with. EA ruin practically all that it touches and pisses on small development companies. look at the Lord of the rings, 3 books and potential for pretty good games handed to EA 2 crap hack and slash games and now they continue to tear the arse right out game after game. With so many other tittles done half arsed, !&%$@#* poor graphics and shoddy gameplay. But put a name like godfather to a tittle and people buy because they recognise the license. Its a Joke. Thanks EA for potentially ruining one of the best developers out there. KOTOR's and Jade EMpire were great mass effect will be too but im not holding my breath for anything else exciting now.

i have to add though EA sports is a different matter, the new NHL game is great and they still create quality games but still get a little lazy from time to time."
Friday, October 12th @ 10:43 PM
Partisan Ranger wrote..."It's not just my opinion, it's that of thousands of others. Just take a glance through xbox.com or bioware.com forums to gauge the general consensus on EA acquiring Bioware. EA has some decent games but it has a reputation for substandard quality for a reason."
Friday, October 12th @ 9:17 PM
CrazyCougar-XBA wrote..."Shoddy games on whose opinion. Wait, thats exactly it. Its all opinion, which everyone has a right too. Me personally, I have enjoyed plenty of EA titles, and know there will be many more in the future. "
Friday, October 12th @ 4:10 PM
Partisan Ranger wrote..."If EA acquired Bioware simply to bankroll them and reap the benefits when games came out, it would be great for all parties. The problem is that Bioware loses creative control to a company that is renowned for ruining smaller development firms and producing shoddy game after shoddy game. "
Friday, October 12th @ 3:56 PM
CrazyCougar-XBA wrote..."I find it funny how the minute EA is mentioned, people want to call names and become disgruntled. This move is only a good thing for Bioware as it gives them a never ending flow of cash. They can go bigger and deeper with games than they ever could before now. Just because EA is going to publish their titles doesnt mean its going to change anything. Sheesh people. Everyone has a grudge against the biggest player in the video game industry, but the bottom line is they are probably the best company out there when it comes to publishing titles. Congrats to EA on the done deal."
Friday, October 12th @ 3:36 PM
Partisan Ranger wrote..."Way to ruin a historically excellent development company. We can probably expect rushed, unoriginal, lowest-common-denominator games from Bioware from now on."
Friday, October 12th @ 1:38 PM
Thomas_Bunny wrote..."I would have thought that MS would keep close to them the best development houses to secure exclusive content. All signs point to MS moving in a different direction in the console business. Owning IPs and parcelling out the development to small studios may be the way to go rather than buying them - less labour headaches I guess."
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