• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

EA To Acquire JAMDAT Mobile Inc.

T

thorns

Banned
pretty big news, I guess, even though noone here probably cares.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/051208/20051208005763.html?.v=1

EA To Acquire JAMDAT Mobile Inc. -- The Leader in North American Mobile Interactive Entertainment
Thursday December 8, 4:10 pm ET
Accelerates EA's Objective of Global Expansion in Mobile

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. & LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 8, 2005--Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS - News) and JAMDAT Mobile Inc. (NASDAQ:JMDT - News) today announced they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which EA will acquire JAMDAT. EA will pay $27 per share in cash in exchange for each share of JAMDAT common stock and assume outstanding stock options for a total of approximately $680 million.

ADVERTISEMENT
EA and JAMDAT together plan to publish over 50 games for mobile phones in the first twelve months following the completion of the acquisition, including popular titles like Tetris, Bejeweled, JAMDAT Bowling, Need For Speed(TM), EA SPORTS Madden NFL(TM) Football and EA SPORTS FIFA Soccer.

"This is an important strategic acquisition for Electronic Arts," said EA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Larry Probst. "Together we intend to build a leading global position in the rapidly growing business of providing games on mobile phones. We look forward to the JAMDAT team joining EA."

Headquartered in Los Angeles, JAMDAT has roughly 350 employees in locations around the world, including Honolulu, Montreal, Tokyo, London, Bucharest and Hyderabad.

"We think the combination of EA and JAMDAT will benefit our shareholders," said JAMDAT Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mitch Lasky. "The combination of EA and EA SPORTS, along with JAMDAT's casual blockbusters like Tetris, Bejeweled and JAMDAT Bowling, will create a powerful product line-up."

Upon closing, JAMDAT CEO Mitch Lasky will lead EA's mobile games business worldwide. The mobile businesses will be combined into one team.

Transaction and Financial Information

* The proposed acquisition has been approved by the board of directors of each company and is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by JAMDAT's stockholders and regulatory approvals.
* The acquisition is expected to close in EA's fiscal fourth quarter.
* In EA's fiscal fourth quarter, non-recurring acquisition-related GAAP charges are expected to be between $0.10 to $0.15 per diluted share.
 
Aren't Jamdat and Activision partners in the Tony Hawk games on mobile devices? That's some funny shit. :lol
 
Fuzzy said:
Aren't Jamdat and Activision partners in the Tony Hawk games on mobile devices? That's some funny shit. :lol
Click to expand...
Jamdat is partners with a lot of companies for mobile projects.

Anyway, personally I could care less. I just have absolutely no interest in mobile gaming, and I can't think of anything that would change that, at least in the anywhere near future.
 
I can't believe you guys didn't know Jamdat was that big.

The mobile market has gotten BIG BIG over the last few years and is set to get bigger, and Jamdat is the biggest of the mobile companies.

This is massive news.
 
Now with their combined resources they can create even more frequent and annoying advertisements.
 
I've never known a single person that's bought a cellphone game. I guess that's why I'm amazed that they're apparently big.
 
Haleon said:
I've never known a single person that's bought a cellphone game. I guess that's why I'm amazed that they're apparently big.
Click to expand...

30% of cellphone owners play games on their handset. 8% have paid for a mobile game at least once. 3% buy a mobile game at least once a month.
 
GDJustin said:
30% of cellphone owners play games on their handset. 8% have paid for a mobile game at least once. 3% buy a mobile game at least once a month.
Click to expand...
Well I guess that's a lot when there are like 200 million cellphone in the US. You learn something new every day.
 
GDJustin said:
30% of cellphone owners play games on their handset. 8% have paid for a mobile game at least once. 3% buy a mobile game at least once a month.
Click to expand...
These people have tiny penises.
 
GDJustin said:
30% of cellphone owners play games on their handset. 8% have paid for a mobile game at least once. 3% buy a mobile game at least once a month.
Click to expand...

But this is counting Tetris, Bejeweled, Texas Hold Em, etc?

When we talk about "regular" gamers, people who play exclusively these games are excluded. But now they are gamers that play games frequently?

Of course, money is money.
 
Y2Kevbug11 said:
But this is counting Tetris, Bejeweled, Texas Hold Em, etc?

When we talk about "regular" gamers, people who play exclusively these games are excluded. But now they are gamers that play games frequently?

Of course, money is money.
Click to expand...


I'm not sure what your point is. Of course its "counting" those games... they're games, after all. What the 30%/8%/3% figures indicate is that a TON of people are gaming on their phone, but most are only sticking with what came preloaded onto it... just to waste time now and then. Far fewer people have crossed over and actually began paying for titles.
 
Also, for the record, I have no problem with this news. I'm well aware of EA's reputation (that is entirely earned), but EA Mobile seems to be on the up-and-up. I've spoken with EA Mobile's GM before for interviews and more informally, and the company bacially is just in the space to make good games, make money, etc. EA's mobile sports titles have been pretty decent so far.
 
Not surprised. Mobile gaming is set to be "the next big thing." Hasn't Ubisoft positioned itself with a rival mobile games company?
 
Zaxxon said:
Not surprised. Mobile gaming is set to be "the next big thing." Hasn't Ubisoft positioned itself with a rival mobile games company?
Click to expand...

Gameloft is Ubisoft, IIRC.
 
The mobile phone market is much larger than the console market so the percentages while small still hold many customers.
 
Does this mean Electronic Arts has given up on acquiring Ubisoft? Ubi speculated that EA bought a big piece of its stock last year in large part because of Gameloft.
 
The mobile market has been ' ready to explode ' for years. Still waiting for it....
 
Yes. This is VERY big news indeed and affects people more than you know.

Btw - what do you mean that it started with EA? EA only started a mobile division a proximately a year and a half ago and they've failed and JAMDAT been doing this for years.
 
bbyybb said:
The mobile market has been ' ready to explode ' for years. Still waiting for it....
Click to expand...

It's exploded everywhere except NA. It's ass backward here. Probably due to the fact that the phones are terrible yet still cost an arm and a leg.
 
And, unlike the rest of the world, landline phone rates are reasonably priced. And Americans tend not to take public transportation to work or school.
 
This looks like a defensive move, similar to what they did with NFL exclusivity deal, they didn't want JAMDAT to fall into the hands of a competitor.

JAMDAT made $7M of profit on $70M of sales, that's a lot to pay for a company in a space that may never catch on as a real gaming platform.
 
The US market isnt bad. Every territory has its pros and cons. For example tariffs are much better in the US than Europe (by far IMO). But in Europe i guess we get more choice of phones. But its costly here.

bbyybb said:
The mobile market has been ' ready to explode ' for years. Still waiting for it....
Click to expand...

Yeah. But its good to be there when it happens. I think that Nokia thing will do well and sell to younger age groups(gamers) who are more likely to adopt that technology.
 
bbyybb said:
The mobile market has been ' ready to explode ' for years. Still waiting for it....
Click to expand...
You've already missed the explosion because it happened about 2 years ago.
 
Pretty much all the investor money is going into mobile gaming these days.

If you want to get rich in the games space, mobile is where it is at. The market may not be huge in terms of dollars yet, but it is perceived as a space where smaller companies can compete and make money effectively. Unlike the console space.

This deal may change that, if it signals EA's intention to try and dominate the space.

Jamdat deserves a nice pay-off, they built a great company in a very short time. But I'm not sure that this is good for the future of the business.
 
Good for JAMDAT. I went to their E3 party in 2002, and a lot of those guys were excited about the future of mobile gaming. Can't blame the guys for selling out at all...
 
Great, a new Tetris every year with basically nothing new...

Makes Rare at 375 sound CHEAP... Damn cell phone tiny ass game company around for a few years worth 680m! Whatever.
 
JoDark said:
Great, a new Tetris every year with basically nothing new...

Makes Rare at 375 sound CHEAP... Damn cell phone tiny ass game company around for a few years worth 680m! Whatever.
Click to expand...

Jamdat employs 350 people, and has something like a half dozen offices including Tokyo, LA, etc.
 
I do know several people that works for JAMDAT and believe me, although they cannot say anything (naturally) in detail, they're excited about the deal and wondering what to do with all those EA games. From the press release, though it doesn't say much, it is obvious that EA are saying, "sorry everyone, we've screwed up!!!" So I think everyone at JAMDAT should be fine and excited that the JAMDAT TEAM - not technology because mobile industry is really about talent rather than technology - may have a high possibility to have the following:
* full control of what titles to take and what titles to leave from EA's 50.

* Full control over their structure: EA failed and JAMDAT succeeded so JAMDAT is doing something that EA is not, therefore JAMDAT should have full rights to who to take onboard to increase the team, who to promote internally for expansion of work, and who to leave behind from EA Mobile. If would be completely stupid for people at EA to have any decision in this area for they've completely failed and have no backing to represent themselves otherwise.

* How much of EA's facilities they should have access to, or even, a choice of whether to add more facilities/resources to their own might.


I have also spoken to my friend who is a Lawyer and he said that this deal is what you call a "Bolt-Merger". It's like an extension to your arm or something like that rather than picking and choosing the pieces that would suit you and leaving the rest behind.

So I guess I'm trying to say that JAMDAT is lucky now for they now have the titles and money to do anything they want, but just unfortunate that they will contribute to the EA monopolisation of the world.
 
EA could have bought themselves into the market with lots of room to spare by just taking that cash and trying for it. The deal is assanine.
 
Well... I know what you mean but it doesn't work like that. I'll copy a post which I made in another forum into here so you can understand further.

I have been observing the mobile industry for a while now and more so since I heard about DOOM RPG and saw the trailer on gametrailers.com.
Mobile games has only just started to reach to the point where they actually feel like video games; SOCOM and DOOM RPG are examples of gaming quality that really shows this. Most importantly, we've reached a stage where the high tier handsets (e.g. LG VX7000 / Sony Ericsson W800) are starting to near or out populate the low tier handsets (E.g. Nokia 3100); its with these high tier handsets that you will see the quality of games that are really delivered with mobile. The population of high tier handsets will only increase exponentially from now till next summer, and with the next generation handsets in the horizon together with the Carrier seeking into improving their network speed, mobile gaming is simply going to get better and better together with our interest for them.

With all this is mind, EA are very right to acquire JAMDAT but with this purchase EA must know that they must NOT interfere with the infrustrature and internal workings of JAMDAT team and simply give/help them what they want and when they need it. Why? Because JAMDAT (and Gameloft) is definitely heading in the right direction with respect to the gaming quality and convincing people that mobile gaming is good - EA been trying for near 2 years and they've completely failed (just like they failed with their online service) which is probably why I hardly ever seen any EA games mentioned in the mobile world whether its FIFA or not. I mean, hell, the carriers given me the impression that they was not THAT interested in games before but now look what happened on T-mobile's website as a prime example cause, damn, they definitely got my interest:

http://www.t-zones.co.uk/en/t_games/index.more/index.html
 
Mobile gaming is pretty f-n big in Europe. I guess it's even bigger in Japan/ Korea.

Sometimes you people forget that US isn't the center of the world. :lol at that guy comparing Rare to Jamdat. Rare is peanuts next to them.
 
Borys said:
Mobile gaming is pretty f-n big in Europe. I guess it's even bigger in Japan/ Korea.

Sometimes you people forget that US isn't the center of the world. :lol at that guy comparing Rare to Jamdat. Rare is peanuts next to them.
Click to expand...

Rare is peanuts next to Jamdat? Rare has at least around 250 employees, compared to jamdat's 350.
 
Since the phones with color screens became available. You cannot watch a music channel without seeing a minimum one of Jamdat commercials. Same goes to teen/ TV programme magazines.
 
thorns said:
Rare is peanuts next to Jamdat? Rare has at least around 250 employees, compared to jamdat's 350.
Click to expand...


Sorry dude but he is right. RARE is peanuts next to JAMDAT. The number of staff does not matter, what matters is how consistent are the revenues within the period of 5 years: JAMDATÂ’s revenues are significantly greater than RAREÂ’s revenues.

Mobile gaming is big in Europe. Figures by analysts Screen Digest suggest that the market for mobile games was worth about $1bn in 2004 and it is expected to grow to $2bn by the end of 2005.
 
WasabiKing said:
Good for JAMDAT. I went to their E3 party in 2002, and a lot of those guys were excited about the future of mobile gaming. Can't blame the guys for selling out at all...
Click to expand...


True, and with some EA backing they should be able to do some cool things.
 
thorns said:
Rare is peanuts next to Jamdat? Rare has at least around 250 employees, compared to jamdat's 350.
Click to expand...

With all respect towards your person I think you forgot to think for a moment before submitting that post.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Savvy Games acquires Mobile Legends developer Moonton for $6 billion
6
222
panda-zebra replied
GAF Mobile Issues?
10
121
th4tguy replied
Borderlands: Mobile shadowdropped
News 
13
263
Holammer replied
RDNA 4 coming to AMD mobile APU?
1
208
Rosoboy19 replied
Maneater is coming to mobile
0
395
Ocean Dweller replied
Top Bottom