EA buys Bioware, Pandemic

CptStern

CptStern

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EA To Acquire BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios
Thursday October 11, 4:07 pm ET
Leaders in RPG, Action and Adventure Genres; Ten Franchises in Development - Six Wholly Owned


REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS - News) today announced an agreement with Elevation Partners to acquire VG Holding Corp. -- the owner of both BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios. This acquisition gives EA a strong competitive position in key genres in interactive entertainment: action, adventure and role-playing games. The two studios have been recognized for creating some of the highest-quality games in the industry.
BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios have ten franchises under development, including six wholly owned games. BioWare Corp. is currently developing the highly anticipated Mass Effect, which will be published by Microsoft in November, and is in the early development stages of a massively multiplayer online game. Pandemic Studios is redefining open-world games with its upcoming Mercenaries 2: World in Flames(TM) and Saboteur(TM), in addition to several unannounced projects.

Pandemic Studios and BioWare Corp. employ roughly 800 people across four studios located in Edmonton, Canada; Los Angeles; Austin; and Brisbane, Australia.

"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's Chief Executive Officer. "We also expect this will drive long-term value for our shareholders."

Pandemic Studios is led by Andrew Goldman, Josh Resnick and Greg Borrud. BioWare Corp. is jointly led by Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka. These teams will join the EA(TM) Games Label run by Frank Gibeau, President of EA Games.

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

"We are truly excited by John Riccitiello's new vision for EA," said Ray Muzyka, Co-founder and CEO of BioWare Corp. "This vision is consistent with BioWare's focus on crafting the highest quality story-driven games in the world. It will enable us to further the careers of the passionate, creative and hard working teams at BioWare Edmonton and BioWare Austin."

EA will pay up to $620 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding Corp. and will issue up to an additional $155 million in equity to certain employees of VG Holding Corp., which will be subject to time-based or performance-based vesting criteria. EA will also assume outstanding VG Holding Corp. stock options. In addition, EA has agreed to lend VG Holding Corp. up to $35 million through the closing of the acquisition.

Transaction and Financial Information

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.
The transaction is expected to close in January 2008.
On a GAAP basis, the acquisition is expected to be dilutive to EA's fiscal 2008 results by approximately $0.30 to $0.40 due to non-recurring acquisition-related charges, stock-based compensation and amortization of intangible assets. This amount is a preliminary estimate based on currently-available information and is subject to change.
On a non-GAAP basis, the acquisition is expected to be dilutive to EA's fiscal 2008 fourth quarter results by approximately $0.05. This amount is a preliminary estimate based on currently-available information and is subject to change.
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NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!111ONE



hehe funny cuz it's true comment:

random shacker said:
Mass Effect to be retooled as a WWII Shooter featuring Tony Hawk and a sound track by Coolio. See if you can get a headshot while doing a tripple vert fakie to level up!
Click to expand...
 
Yay,they'll be churning out shitty kotor and mercenaries sequels till no end.
 
That's why real games companies are privatly owned by obscenly rich guys who can't be bought out by anything short of 7 truckloads of platinium and diamonds.
 
riomhaire said:
That's why real games companies are privatly owned by obscenly rich guys who can't be bought out by anything short of 7 truckloads of platinium and diamonds.
Click to expand...

Do you think Gabe would give up valve for 7 truckloads of inedible diamonds?

EDIT: Also, this sucks. Will we ever see a game as good as KOTOR from them again?
 
RIP Bioware. :(

I did enjoy the Battlefront series too. This ain't so good.
 
D:
Respect for Bioware
D:_______|______:D
Respect for EA
D:_|____________:D
 
I just got back from work, so somebody tell me, do they keep their IP rights or does EA own those too?
 
Boycotting Mass Effect starting...now! (Just kidding...damnit.)

So does this mean Baldur's Gate 3 is more or less likely to appear???

Sucks.
 
Either it wont appear or it will be and will be crap and forcefully rushed through development and be buggy as hell...
 
I'm not phased at all.

EA can't **** up a great company like Bioware.
 
If talent and skill were currency, Bioware would buy out EA fivefold.
 
F*ck.

If gaming were a religion, I would happily martyr myself to bring down EA HQ. ****ing infidels.
 
cabbs said:
Do you think Gabe would give up valve for 7 truckloads of inedible diamonds?

EDIT: Also, this sucks. Will we ever see a game as good as KOTOR from them again?
Click to expand...

ZING :thumbs:

Never enjoyed KOTOR myself but my brother loved both of them. EA are willing to allow their better developers produce games like SPORE, so hopefully Bioware will be given its head.
 
Xune said:
ZING :thumbs:

Never enjoyed KOTOR myself but my brother loved both of them. EA are willing to allow their better developers produce games like SPORE, so hopefully Bioware will be given its head.
Click to expand...

Have you seen how retarded Spore looks now?!
 
You just wait. In 2 years time Spore will ship, albeit stripped down considerably and renamed "Sims: Space Vacation!"
 
Have you seen how retarded Spore looks now?!
Click to expand...

No, I haven't been following Spore at all. Isn't talking about it's looks a rather moot point though, seeing as how the game content seems to based entirely around player driven design?
 
They changed the look of Spore a bit. I liked it better before, really.
 
I think I just saw the hands on the Doomsday clock move a bit closer to midnight :(
 
Sorry about the double post, the forums got f*cked up for me for a few minutes
 
But 10p says it's more NWN than BG.

Mass Effect better still be a trilogy.
 
****.. i hate this news! living in edmonton myself.. i wanna march down to bioware and be like WTF MATES!!!? lol BUt i know that wouldnt do anybody anygood.. juss sucks cause i really dont like ea...

ahh well...

PEACE

Mikey;:)(
 
cabbs said:
Do you think Gabe would give up valve for 7 truckloads of inedible diamonds?

EDIT: Also, this sucks. Will we ever see a game as good as Planescape Torment from them again?
Click to expand...

Fixed.

10char
 
On the positive front I guess we'll see Mass Effect on the PC sooner :cheers:
 
This is one of the main reasons everybody ****ing hates EA. Their evil knows no bounds...

Let us pray that they may never touch the greatness of Valve.
 
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