Electronic Arts 2004 Annual Report Download - page 109

Item 9: Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure
None.
Item 9A: Controls and Procedures
DeÑnition and limitations of disclosure controls. Our disclosure controls and procedures (as deÑned in
Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the ""Exchange
Act'')) are controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed
in our reports Ñled under the Exchange Act, such as this report, is recorded, processed, summarized and
reported within the time periods speciÑed in the SEC's rules and forms. Disclosure controls and procedures
are also designed to ensure that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management,
including the Chief Executive OÇcer and Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Administrative
OÇcer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Our management evaluates
these controls and procedures on an ongoing basis.
There are inherent limitations to the eÅectiveness of any system of disclosure controls and procedures. These
limitations include the possibility of human error, the circumvention or overriding of the controls and
procedures and reasonable resource constraints. In addition, because we have designed our system of controls
based on certain assumptions, which we believe are reasonable, about the likelihood of future events, our
system of controls may not achieve its desired purpose under all possible future conditions. Accordingly, our
disclosure controls and procedures provide reasonable assurance, but not absolute assurance, of achieving
their objectives.
Evaluation of disclosure controls and procedures. Our Chief Executive OÇcer and Executive Vice President,
Chief Financial and Administrative OÇcer, after evaluating the eÅectiveness of our disclosure controls and
procedures, believe that as of the end of the period covered by this report, our disclosure controls and
procedures were eÅective in providing the requisite reasonable assurance that material information required to
be disclosed in the reports that we Ñle or submit under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized
and reported within the time periods speciÑed in the SEC's rules and forms, and is accumulated and
communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive OÇcer and Executive Vice President,
Chief Financial and Administrative OÇcer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding the required
disclosure.
Changes in internal controls. During our last Ñscal quarter, no change occurred in our internal control over
Ñnancial reporting that materially aÅected, or is reasonably likely to materially aÅect, our internal control
over Ñnancial reporting. However, in response to the certiÑcation requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and
new SEC Regulations, during Ñscal 2003 and 2004 we enhanced our internal controls and disclosure systems,
through various measures including: detailing certain internal accounting policies; establishing a disclosure
committee for the preparation of all periodic SEC reports; establishing an internal audit function; and
requiring certiÑcations from various trial balance controllers and other Ñnancial personnel responsible for our
Ñnancial statements.
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