Electronic Arts Acquires BioWare and Pandemic

Electronic Arts announced that it will be welcoming the BioWare Corporation and Pandemic Studios to its family in a deal worth $860 million. That amount marks the largest in history.

Under the terms of the deal, Electronic Arts will pay VG stockholders up to $620 million in cash and issue as much as $155 million in equity to some of the company’s employees. The shares will be subject to certain time- and performance-restricted vesting criteria.

As I mentioned earlier, BioWare will be releasing Mass Effect for the Xbox 360 next month, with no hopes of Sony cashing in. Meanwhile, Pandemic has Mercenaries 2: World in Flames and Sabouteur in their lineup. f

Time will tell if this deal was a good move for all companies involved. That’s a lot of money getting tossed around.

Via | DealBook