Electronic Arts is buying BioWare and Pandemic Studios, two of the most respected “independent” developers in the videogame industry. The deal came about when EA reached an agreement with Elevation Partners to acquire VG Holding Corp., the owner of both BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios.
EA will pay up to $620 million in cash to the stockholders of VG Holding Corp. and will issue up to an additional $155 million in equity to certain employees of VG Holding Corp. This amount will be subject to time-based or performance-based vesting criteria. EA will also assume outstanding VG Holding Corp. stock options, and EA has agreed to lend VG Holding Corp. up to $35 million through the closing of the acquisition.
BioWare and Pandemic have 10 franchises under development, including six wholly owned games. BioWare is currently developing one of DailyGame’s most-anticipated games of the year, Mass Effect, which will be published by Microsoft in November. Bioware is also in the early stages of a massively multiplayer online game.
Pandemic, meanwhile, is hard at work on Mercenaries 2: World in Flames and Saboteur, among other unannounced next-gen projects.
Pandemic Studios and BioWare Corp. employ roughly 800 people combined.
The transaction is expected to close in January 2008.