

PopCap Games To Be Acquired For $1 Billion+ - jmjerlecki
http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/22/popcap-games-to-be-acquired-for-1-billion/

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daeken
These guys deserve it. They've put out great games and worked damn hard to get
to where they are. Good luck!

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masklinn
They got bought by EA. I don't think they deserved such a terrible fate.

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Tomis
Why not take the money and leave to form a new studio? After all the key
resource in any game development company are the people, not the IP or
existing software..

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PakG1
Most acquisitions have golden handcuff clauses where the shares given in the
acquisition vest over time, no? So if they leave early, they don't get all
their money. Although maybe the upfront earnout is enough for them to not
care.

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Tomis
Indeed, that seems very likely. Thanks.

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rubergly
I would be extremely disappointed and disheartened if it's Zynga.

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9999
Well, even if it is Zynga, the talent at Popcap will get a big payout and if
Zynga proves to be as stultifying and dull an environment as it seems, then
they'll eventually drift away to form new ventures. Not a great deal for
gamers, but at least the Popcap folks will get paid. Good for them.

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Steko
I like Microsoft as the buyer here but here's a more interesting idea: one of
the big Android vendors looking for differentiation.

They've had weak results with their ui layers so exclusive apps is the clear
next step to take. This could be Amazon, Samsung, Motorola or Sony. Amazon
would be my bet.

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jeffool
Has Amazon dipped its toes into content production before? Then again, I'm
still occasionally surprised by the Kindle.

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haldean
Rumor has it they're working on an Android tablet, which would probably
involve some sort of content production.

[http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/23/amazons-android-tablet-
co...](http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/23/amazons-android-tablet-coming-
in-10-and-7-inch-models-with-qua/)

~~~
iam
Would someone really buy a tablet just to be able to run exclusive games on
it? A gaming tablet maybe, but a regular tablet?

Plus, with games like Bejeweled or Plants vs Zombies, it's not exactly hard to
duplicate in a matter of weeks and get rid of that exclusive edge.

~~~
Steko
I think if it was Amazon it would probably be exclusive Amazon Appstore
instead of exclusive Amazon Tablet. Maybe exclusive Amazon App Store plus free
on Amazon devices.

(1) Amazon's central business is the store, and something like this could be a
loss leader to help build the Amazon Appstore vs Google Market.

(2) 90% of the value in these companies would be lost if you lost all phone
sales (hence Rovio's short term exclusive on AB2).

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kin
I love their games, particularly Plants vs. Zombies all the old ones from the
dawn of online flash games. So glad to see them do well.

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donaq
_That said, it wouldn’t be EA’s first big bet on a hot gaming startup_

Not to nitpick, but can a 10-year-old company still be called a startup?

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jianshen
I just hope whoever buys them lets them continue working the way they do. I
admire their product process so much.

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6ren
I was curious about tencent. The link gives its market cap as 378.1B - but
that's HKD. In USD, it's 48.54B.

That makes more sense, because the largest market cap in the world is 368B
(Exxon). 2nd is 303B (PetroChina), 3rd is... Apple, with 295B. I didn't expect
that. Apple is the 3rd largest company in the world.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_corporations_by_market_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_corporations_by_market_capitalization#2010)

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inkaudio
It's interesting most people don't expect Apple to be the company acquiring,
despite the fact they make a lot popular games for ios and mac. This is could
be one of Apple misses if PopCap stop making games for Apple's platform, we
know the story of Bungie. Apple is still not fully invested in the game
development / gaming community. Apple already missed the opportunity to make
Angry Birds it's Mario Brothers for the ios platform.

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shinratdr
This will never happen. Ever. It just doesn't make sense if you know anything
about Apple and their reluctant acceptance of gaming. Apple is also not about
to go around maintaining software for other people's platforms.

> Apple already missed the opportunity to make Angry Birds it's Mario Brothers
> for the ios platform.

They aren't interested in owning the killer 3rd party apps or games for the
platform. If Apple was at all interested in this they would have bought
Tweetie, Reeder, and a number of other apps that are ubiquitous on iOS
devices.

> This is could be one of Apple misses if PopCap stop making games for Apple's
> platform, we know the story of Bungie.

Bungie was a totally different situation. PopCap makes its cash from its multi
platform strategy, make games that will run on anything and them port them to
everything. Bungie desperately wanted Apple to buy them and become a company
that it's not.

Frankly releasing Halo for the Mac even with Apple's help would have been a
bad idea. It was unfortunate at the time, but everything worked out for the
best. Bungie needed a bigger & simpler market for Halo, and Apple didn't need
to be tied down by the demands of supporting gaming while they were still in
the middle of fleshing out OS X.

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inkaudio
Apple purchased Emagic for their 3rd party software and skill. They bought "a
killer 3rd party app". They did this because they did not have much in house
talent working music production software. Since then Apple philosophy is to
develop and hire talent in house, because it's typically much cheaper. But
with games they face the same challenge they did when they bought Emagic, they
don't have any great gaming talent at Apple. Apple currently promotes Infinity
Blade in it's commercial as if it's exclusive to Apple, currently it is but
that's not due to contract, Chair can port it if they want to.

> PopCap makes its cash from its multi platform strategy, make games that will
> run on anything and them port them to everything.

I know that, but that strategy could change with the purchase, that was my
point. PopCap's team can get better or than get worse. If the get better and
the new owners decided to go exclusive that could be a miss. I don't think
Apple should buy Popcap, I think they should have worked a long term deal with
them. Apple didn't buy Bungie because it's not fully invested in games. Just
to illustrate Infinity Blade was mostly developed in a Microsoft os
environment.

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bane
Awesome! These guys really deserve it. Great company, great products. I have
really nothing but good things to say about these guys.

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ohashi
Can't be too many players around to play in the $1B range. In the US from
gaming industry:

EA (7.5B market cap)

Activision (13B market cap)

Microsoft

Sony

Valve (I somehow think they couldn't afford it)

Tech / Social:

Zynga

Google

Facebook

Foreign? No idea here.

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coryl
I would rule out: \- Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Sony, Valve

Just doesn't fit the acquisition profile for those companies IMO. The Popcap
guys are smart, and for a billion dollar valuation, the acquire'er would have
to have some sizable synergistic advantages afterwards.

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citricsquid
Not Valve? I dunno, it seems _possible_ to me, but I think it's probably one
of the companies trying to move into casual games, which PopCap are great at,
I assume EA.

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jmcqk6
Valve would be able to make this purchase, but I don't see why they would.
There is nothing for them to gain by it at all.

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lemming
I worked with Jason Kapalka of PopCap in a previous life. He's a great guy and
really passionate about what he does - I'm really glad to see it work out for
him (and his colleagues, who are presumably similarly great).

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stevenj
Perhaps Yahoo?

