Perhaps Electronic Arts figured it was about time to start milking the cash cow that is mobile gaming: it has announced its intent to buy publisher Glu Mobile, known for its freemium all-encompassing titles like "Kim Kardashian: Hollywood," "Cooking Dash," and 2013's "Frontline Commando: D-Day," for $2.1 billion — a 36% premium on its market capitalization up to today.

Unlike many other companies, Glu's 2020 ended with revenue gains as it reported fourth quarter revenues of $141 million (up 32% year-over-year) and full-year income of $20.4 million (up 129%). Bookings for brand-aligned games have increased with clients including the likes of Disney as fans spend more idle time during the pandemic and their money on in-game currencies and perks.

Electronic Arts — which has its teeth sunk into its big-name franchises like "The Sims," "Plants vs. Zombies," its sports league simulators, and the Star Wars series — says it's going for scale with the acquisition of Glu's 500 developers (it also has 300 other discretionary staff) and its intellectual property.

GLUU shares spent the day around its EA-inflated valuation and closed up 35%. EA stepped up 2.6%. The deal is expected to close on June 30.

Source: Electronic Arts

UPDATE: 2021/04/29 8:19am PDT BY MATTHEW SHOLTZ

Electronics Arts acquires Glu Mobile

Electronic Arts has just announced that it's completed its acquisition of Glu Mobile, the studio behind such games as Kim Kardashian: Hollywood and Britney Spears: American Dream. EA has picked up the studio for a cool $2.1 billion, which is a hefty chunk of change. As expected, this means Glu will be bringing along more than 500 mobile developers with this acquisition, greatly growing EA's pool of mobile devs. So now that this purchase is official, it seems safe to expect more lackluster free-to-play mobile games from EA in the coming years. After all, why spend money on making quality games when you can cash in with pure garbage.

Source: Electronic Arts