EA buys out PopCap for $750 million

EA has come out and announced they’ve acquired PopCap, makers of Bejeweled and Plants vs Zombies, for $750 million.

“EA and PopCap are a compelling combination,” said EA CEO John Riccitiello in a statement. “PopCap’s great studio talent and powerful IP add to EA’s momentum and accelerate our drive towards a $1 billion digital business. EA’s global studio and publishing network will help PopCap rapidly expand their business to more digital devices, more countries, and more channels.”

With PopCap now under EA’s banner, EA expressed intent to further spread Bejeweled, Peggle and Plants vs Zombies to “new platforms and markets”. In other words, they’ll probably not stop until PopCap’s titles are on every platform imaginable.

Rumors that some company was interested in purchasing PopCap has been floating around the internet for some time now, but that doesn’t really make this news any news any less of a shocker to me.

Consider me interested to see what comes of this. Beyond PopCap’s lineup invading all possible platforms, that is.