Electronic Arts 2009 Annual Report Download - page 85

Annual Report
We were initially incorporated in California in 1982. In September 1991, we reincorporated under the laws of
Delaware. Our principal executive offices are located at 209 Redwood Shores Parkway, Redwood City,
California 94065 and our telephone number is [phone].
Significant Business Developments in Fiscal 2009
Fiscal 2009 Cost Reduction Plan
In fiscal year 2009, we announced details of a cost reduction plan. This plan includes a narrowing of our product
portfolio, a reduction in our worldwide workforce of approximately 11 percent, or 1,100 employees, the closure
of 10 facilities, and reductions in other variable costs and capital expenditures. We consolidated and reorganized
two of our Labels, The Sims and EA Casual Entertainment into the EA Play Label and introduced a new
organization, EA Interactive, which includes our Pogo™ and EA Mobile™ businesses, in order to capture
synergies and generate greater efficiencies. We now have three Labels — EA Games, EA SPORTS and EA Play.
Proposed Acquisition of Take-Two Interactive Software
On March 13, 2008, we commenced an unsolicited $26.00 per share cash tender offer for all of the outstanding
shares of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Take-Two”), for a total purchase price
of approximately $2.1 billion. On August 18, 2008, we allowed our tender offer for Take-Two shares to expire
and on September 14, 2008, we announced that we had terminated discussions with Take-Two.
Our Operating Structure
We are organized into three Labels (EA Games, EA SPORTS and EA Play) and our Global Publishing
Organization. Each Label operates globally with dedicated game development and marketing teams. Global
Publishing operates in three regions — North America, Europe and Asia — and is responsible for a number of
business functions such as: strategic planning, field marketing, sales, distribution, operations, product
certification, quality assurance, motion capture, art outsourcing and localization within the local markets in
which we operate.
EA Games Label
The EA Games Label is home to the largest number of our studios and development teams, which together create
an expansive and diverse portfolio of games marketed under the EA brand in categories such as action-adventure,
role playing, racing and combat games. The EA Games portfolio is comprised primarily of wholly-owned
properties and includes several established franchises such as Need for Speed, Battlefield, Mercenaries,
Burnout™ and SKATE. In addition, EA Games has recently launched new franchises including SPORE and
Dead Space, and has additional titles in development. In addition to traditional packaged-goods games, EA
Games also develops massively-multiplayer online role-playing games which are persistent state virtual worlds
where thousands of other players can interact with one another (“MMOs”). Examples of MMOs developed by the
EA Games Label include Warhammer®Online: Age of Reckoning®launched in fiscal year 2009 and Star
Wars™: The Old Republic™, which is in development at our BioWare Studio, in collaboration with LucasArts.
EA Games titles are developed primarily at the following EA studios: BioWare (Edmonton, Canada and Austin,
Texas), Criterion (Guildford, England), DICE (Stockholm, Sweden), EA Los Angeles, EA Montreal, Visceral
(Redwood City, California), Maxis (Emeryville, California), EA Mythic (Fairfax, Virginia), EAX (Burnaby,
British Columbia, Canada) and Pandemic Studios (Los Angeles, California).
EA Games also includes the EA Partners group, which contracts with external game developers and third party
companies, to provide these partners with a variety of services including development assistance, publishing, and
distribution of their games.
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