EA Acquires Mobile Video Game Maker Chillingo

By Beecher Tuttle

TMCnet Contributor

 

Interactive entertainment software giant Electronic Arts recently confirmed that it has acquired mobile game maker Chillingo, the U.K.-based creator of several immensely popular titles for the iPhone (News - Alert), iPad and iPod Touch. 

Although officials with EA failed to disclose the details of the acquisition, the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital website reported that the deal involved approximately $20 million in cash as well as other incentives and earnouts.

For EA, the transaction will strengthen its position on the Apple (News - Alert) platform and give the company access to Chillingo's expertise in the global mobile publishing space, Holly Rockwood, EA Interactive's PR director, said in a statement. Chillingo will maintain its independence and continue designing and marketing mobile games with the help of independent developers.

While the acquisition seems to make sense for EA on the surface, several U.K. media outlets are reporting that the deal does not involve the intellectual property rights to Angry Birds, Chillingo's most popular game.

"I'm kind of wondering why they bought it," Todd Mitchell, an analyst at Kaufman Bros, told Reuters (News - Alert). "In the light of EA not getting the Angry Birds IP, they're buying the development platform to put their own IP on it in hopes of driving social networking and customers back to their own properties.'

The online and mobile video gaming industry has seen a number of acquisitions take place over the last 12 months, as vendors look to take advantage of the recent smart phone craze. In July of this year, Disney spent nearly $1 billion to acquire online social gaming company Playdom (News - Alert) and iPhone game developer Tapulous. Meanwhile, EA picked up social network game maker Playfish for $400 million late last year.

Zynga, creator of many of Facebook's (News - Alert) most popular video game applications, has made a number of small moves, including its recent purchase of Unoh, a Japanese creator of social games.