Friday, October 12, 2007

Electronic Arts Inc to acquire VG Holdings for $860 million

About VCs Deal:
Electronic Arts Inc. sealed a deal with private-equity firm Elevation Partners to buy a videogame-development company for $860 million, bolstering its pipeline of action, adventure and role-playing titles with 10 yet-to-be released games.
How The Deal Is?
Elevation Partners will sell its VG Holdings Corp., the parent company of game makers BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios, which has produced hit titles such as Destroy All Humans! The deal -- the largest in EA's history -- includes two new games generating buzz in the industry, Mass Effect and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.

Six of the 10 games under development are fully owned by VG .

The deal is EA’s largest and will add six more video games to the 10 EA is currently developing. The acquisition, which follows last week’s acquisition of gaming apps provider Super Computer International, reflects EA’s strategy of maintaining the rights of the games it publishes, rather than sharing ownership with outside parties like film studios.

Under the terms of the deal, which was negotiated by Elevation Partners, EA will give VG’s stockholders up to $620 million in cash, with $155 million in equity to certain of its employees, based on performace.
More at:http://www.ea.com/
Via-WSJ

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