EA Acquires Glu Mobile for $2.4 Billion - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 08 February 2021 / 1,825 Views
Electronic Arts announced it is acquiring mobile gaming publisher, Glu Mobile, in a deal worth $2.4 billion. The acquisition is expected to close in Q2 2021, which ends June 30, 2021.
Glu Mobile is known for multiple mobile games. The list of games includes Kim Kardashian: Hollywood, Tap Sports Baseball, Dine Dash Adventures, Disney Sorcerer’s Arena, and more.
"Our acquisition of Glu combines amazing teams and deeply-engaging products to create a mobile games leader with proven expertise across many fast-growing genres," EA CEO Andrew Wilson said. "Mobile continues to grow as the biggest gaming platform in the world, and with the addition of Glu’s games and talent, we’re doubling the size of our mobile business."
Glu Mobile CEO Nick Early added, "This transaction is the culmination of the tremendous work of the Glu team to deliver world-class interactive experiences for our players, while driving business momentum that has led to strong financial and operational results. It represents a terrific outcome for all of our stockholders and other key constituents,” said Earl. “As part of Electronic Arts, we will continue capitalizing on the opportunities ahead in the expanding mobile gaming industry."
This is the second recent acquisition for EA. EA previously announced it has acquired racing developer Codemasters for $1.2 billion.
EA said the strategic rationale for the acquisition includes:
- Creating a Leading Mobile Portfolio Across Key Genres. The complementary nature of Electronic Arts and Glu’s successful products will create a portfolio that spans many of the biggest and most popular genres of mobile games, including sports, RPG, lifestyle, casual, and mid-core games. The combined organization will have a demographically diverse audience, with significant opportunities for franchise and market expansion.
- Expanding Successful, Scalable Live Services. Both Electronic Arts and Glu have proven success creating mobile live service games that deeply engage large communities over many years and deliver strong recurring revenue. The combined expertise of the two organizations unlocks potential for further success. Glu’s franchises like Design Home, Covet Fashion, and MLB Tap Sports Baseball will benefit from Electronic Arts’ global licensing and distribution capabilities to bring them to new markets and more players. Glu’s expertise in building and monetizing sports and casual mobile games, combined with Electronic Arts’ industry-leading IP in sports and beyond, will accelerate the creation of exciting new experiences for broad audiences.
- Experienced Creative Leadership & Enhanced Team Capabilities. Glu brings a talented team including more than 500 mobile game developers (and nearly 800 total employees), adding significant scale to Electronic Arts’ mobile-focused organization. Glu’s creative leaders are established and well-known to Electronic Arts, with similar focus on creating highly successful mobile games with longevity. The combination of proven mobile leadership, deeply talented teams, genre expertise, long-running franchises and IP, and technology across the two organizations will be a catalyst to delivering new experiences and further growth.
- Accelerating Growth. The combination of Electronic Arts and Glu will be a mobile growth engine. With strong, recurring revenue across a leading portfolio of live services, strength in key mobile genres, a deep roster of owned and licensed IP, access to a large-scale and growing player network, and ability to reach into new regions and markets, the acquisition will be immediately accretive to EA’s total net bookings and is expected to grow underlying profitability beginning in its first year.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I care so little for mobile games that I'm not sure if this matters. Its the lowest form of gaming.
Oh no, the Kim Kardashian games are gonna be locked behind EA Play! Whatever will we do!!!
Oh, well, as long as EA is blowing its money on shit, they aren’t buying any developers that are actually good. Hopefully they’ll empty their coffers buying shitty developers.
Don't you guys have phones?
Suprised they are worth that much
"Glu brings a talented team including more than 500 mobile game developers..."
Do they have 500 windows to jump out of?
Really now?
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