Electronic Arts is to write a cheque of the the publisher of "Angry Birds" Chillingo. The game is one of the most popular mobile phone games and the buyout is seen as pushing EA deeper into the mobile games market.
It has been reported that EA will pay under $20 million in cash for Chillingo. EA spokeswoman has confirmed the deal was true but would not confirm how much money has changed hands. Under the deal, EA will not receive the intellectual property rights to "Angry Birds," which will remain under Rovio, the Finnish company that developed the game.
Some analysts are wondering what EA spent its money on. It looks like the cash was spent buying the development platform to put their own IP on it in hopes of driving social networking and customers back to their own properties.Electronic Arts, which owns Medal of Honor and Madden NFL franchises, can push its established brands through new social games in the same way that Disney, which bought social gaming company Playdom for $563.2 million in July, has used with its ESPN brand in the ESPNU College Town game for Facebook.
Chillingo publishes other mobile games but none have been quite as successful as "Angry Birds.”
