Electronic Arts has been poking around the mobile games industry for a couple of years, but finally the company has committed in typically extravagant fashion - by putting in a successful $680m bid for US mobile content publisher and developer, Jamdat. You can get the full financial story here but, in brief, EA is paying $27 per share for its latest acquisition and plans to publish around 50 mobile titles in the year following the deal.
Jamdat is, by mobile gaming standards, an industry veteran, formed back in March 2000 by two ex-Activision execs, Scott Lahman and Zack Norman. It's certainly one of the key publishers in the global business holding licenses to Tetris, Lord of the Rings, SOCOM, Tony Hawk's and Doom among others. Hmm, what will happen to all those Activision IPs now?
Another question is, where does this leave I-play, the UK mobile publisher that entered into a strategic partnership with EA last year and has co-published and distributed a number of key EA licenses such as Tiger Woods, FIFA and The Sims.
So, anyway, is this another sign that:
a) Mobile gaming is gaining increasing acceptance and importance? b) EA just really enjoys buying stuff, and, you know, that $680m was burning a hole in its pocket?
Thanks to Indoctrimat
