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Electronic Arts voted 'Worst Company of 2012,' beating out Bank of America [San Jose Mercury News, Calif.](San Jose Mercury News (CA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) April 05--Redwood City video game company Electronic Arts (ERTS) was voted "The Worst Company in America" in an annual poll run by a blog affiliated with Consumer Reports. For the seventh consecutive year, The Consumerist asked its readers to participate in a 32-company, bracket-style competition to determine the nation's worst company, and EA -- which was included in the competition for the first time -- handily upset the nation's largest bank in the final, taking slightly more than 64 percent of the votes. EA was voted into this year's competition because of the cost of its games and "the increasing amount of add-on content that the company doesn't include in the games it sells, but only makes available in deluxe editions, store-specific versions or as a la carte downloadable content," The Consumerist wrote. "We're sure that bank presidents, oil, tobacco and weapons companies are all relieved they weren't on the list this year," EA spokesman John Reseburg told the Los Angeles Times in response to the award. "We're going to continue making award-winning games and services played by more than 300 million people worldwide." The Consumerist counts nominations from its readers to decide what companies are included in each year's contest. Other Silicon Valley companies in this year's competition included Apple (AAPL), Facebook, Netflix (NFLX), Google (GOOG) and PayPal, though none reached the Final Four, which included AT&T and Wal-Mart. Companies face off in head-to-head votes, and the blog says it received more than 250,000 total votes in this year's contest. In 2011, BP defeated Bank of America in the final; other previous winners of the contest's "Golden Poo" trophy include Comcast, AIG and Countrywide, which was later purchased by Bank of America. The Consumerist is published by Consumer Media, a not-for-profit subsidiary of Consumer Reports. Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876. ___ (c)2012 the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) Visit the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) at www.mercurynews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |