AT&T announced WarnerMedia has sold Warner Bros. Games’ Playdemic Ltd, the mobile games studio responsible for Golf Clash, to Electronic Arts (EA) — for $1.4 billion in cash.
Golf Clash is available on iOS, Android, and Facebook and allows players to compete with each other around the world in real time. Golf Clash is one of the leading mobile games in the US and UK and has more than 80 million downloads globally to date.
David Haddad, President, Warner Bros. Games, said: “Our decision to divest is a part of our strategy to build games based on Warner Bros. storied franchises.”
The acquisition of Playdemic is part of EA’s mobile growth strategy focused on delivering exciting new experiences for EA’s network of nearly half a billion players. The acquisition will add to EA’s mobile portfolio of more than 15 top live services across fast-growing genres, including lifestyle, casual, sports, and mid-core games.
The purchase price for the transaction is subject to customary adjustments, and will be paid in cash at closing and retained by AT&T. EA is buying Playdemic from Warner Bros Games, a unit of WarnerMedia that is being hived off from AT&T.
The remaining Warner Bros. Games portfolio is included in the WarnerMedia-Discovery transaction and will become part of the combined media and entertainment company after the expected close of that transaction.
EA has been on a buying spree as it sits on a strong balance sheet and looks to scale up by adding more gaming titles. It acquired Glu Mobile for $2.4 billion in February and UK-based Codemasters for $1.2 billion in December.
The gaming industry has also seen a series of acquisitions in the past few months, including Microsoft’s $7.5 billion acquisition of ZeniMax Media and Swedish video game group Embracer buying Gearbox and Easybrain.
