PopCap Acquired by Electronic Arts for $1.3 Billion

In a bid to gave its gaming portfolio, comprising of social and casual gaming a major facelift, popular video game publisher, Electronic Arts has locked up a $1.3 billion deal with PopCap games, yet another popular player in this space.

As per a post on their official page, PopCap stated that it was being acquired by Electronic Arts. PopCap will be paid $650 million in cash, and the remaining would come to it in the form of common stock. This latest move by Electronic Arts comes at a time when the video game industry in particular is undergoing several behavioral changes. Users are no longer buying games on CDs, it is observed.  Instead, it’s more of a digital domain now. Makers like Electronic Arts are increasingly looking out for ways to get their content on different, innovative platforms, the most formidable ones being the mobile, PC, and social networking platforms like Facebook among others.

Pop goes PopCap all the way to EA

In addition to the $1.3 billion that EA will pay PopCap during its purchase time, there is an amount of $550 million reserved, if PopCap helps EA see better days. In contrast to EA’s image in the market, PopCap has an easy to get along with kind of an image in the market. It has authored games on Facebook, RenRen, Google Android, Apple iPhone and iPad, and thus observers believe that their union should do wonders.

Also, since a long time, EA has been struggling in the same space as that of Zynga, and believes that the buyout should give it some breathing space, and who knows an upper hand, too.