EA buys Angry Birds founder Chillingo for $ 20 million

Mashable accounts that Electronic Arts has purchased the mobile app business Chillingo – founder of the mobile app “Angry Birds” – for $ 20 million money. The wildly popular “Angry Birds” app has dominated the App Store charts since Dec 2009. Development Rovio claims to have sold nearly 7 million copies at the 99-cent price point. Rovio most recently released a $ 4.99 HD version of “Angry Birds” for the iPad, and an Android port hit that platform in September. Resource for this article – EA buys Angry Birds publisher Chillingo for $ 20 million by Personal Money Store.

Soon Rovio will control the ‘Angry Birds’

EA is purchasing Chillingo which published “Angry Birds” The EA deal allows Rovio to continue controlling the “Angry Birds” franchise though according to Rovio, which is the Finland-based business that developed the “Angry Birds” app. Rovio told Mashable that it means “Angry Birds” and “any future products” will nevertheless be under its control. Thursday there will be more “Angry Birds” announcements to come. 1 million copies of “Cut the Rope,” Chillingo’s most recent app, sold in just 10 days. This shows that “Angry Birds” probably isn’t going anywhere.

Apple something Electronic Arts is focusing on

Reuters spoke with EA spokeswoman Holly Rockwood. She said that EA Mobile’s market leading presence on the iPhone platform is what Electronic Arts was working toward when buying Chillingo, which makes it so EA Mobile nevertheless can be the best app business in the whole world.

Interestingly, Electronic Arts shares had decreased by 1.2 percent to $15.40 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq, writes Reuters. Whether this has anything to do with Chillingo’s current scheme of offering “Angry Birds” for free on the Android platform with in-game advertising remains to be seen. Reaction to Chillingo’s Android offering of “Angry Birds” with the in-game marketing has been largely negative in the video game press.

Citations

Apple

itunes.apple.com/us/app/angry-birds/id343200656

Mashable

mashable.com/2010/10/20/angry-birds-electronic-arts/?utm_source=feedburner and utm_medium=feed and utm_campaign=Feed: Mashable (Mashable)

Reuters

reuters.com/article/idCNN2022096920101020?rpc=44