PopCap Games to Be Acquired for over $1 Billion

The gaming giant, target="_blank" href="http://www.ip4help.com">PopCap Games is onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/techcrunch.com/2011/06/22/popcap-games-to-be-acquired-for-1-billion/');" target="_blank" href="http://www.ip4help.com">said to be being acquired for over $1 billion by TechCrunch’s sources. PopCap Games are the geniuses behind the classics, onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plants_vs._Zombies');" target="_blank" href="http://www.ip4help.com">Plants vs. Zombies (onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/itunes.apple.com/us/app/plants-vs-zombies/id350642635?mt=8');" target="_blank" href="http://www.ip4help.com">iPhone), onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bejeweled');" target="_blank" href="http://www.ip4help.com">Bejeweled (onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/itunes.apple.com/us/app/bejeweled-2-blitz/id284832142?mt=8');" target="_blank" href="http://www.ip4help.com">iPhone), onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggle');" target="_blank" href="http://www.ip4help.com">Peggle (onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/itunes.apple.com/us/app/peggle/id314303518?mt=8');" target="_blank" href="http://www.ip4help.com">iPhone) and more.

The even bigger giant, who is making the purchase, is not known for sure, although Zynga was at first an obvious candidate. TC’s sources say that the company did make offers, though could not finally satisfy PopCap’s wants. Zynga has been on a company-buying-spree, as they have bought 12 gaming companies in the past 12 months.

The next possibility is Electronic Arts, a huge figure of gaming. Making games for iOS and pretty much all other platforms, in all of the possible genres, I wouldn’t put it past EA to make such a big acquisition. Although $1 billion out of their market cap of $7.49 billion would be a large chunk.

Other possibilities are DeNA (company that acquired ngmoco for $300 million) and Chinese company Tencent. Once the solid news arises, I’ll update this post letting you know all of the details.

[Via onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/techcrunch.com/2011/06/22/popcap-games-to-be-acquired-for-1-billion/');" target="_blank" href="http://www.ip4help.com">TechCrunch]