According to anonymous sources would Electronic Arts five hundred to a thousand employees to dismiss. The redundancies might go this week all fall. The surgery would be necessary after a disappointing 2011 and a sharply declining share price.
A representative from website Startup Grind heard from ‘various sources’ in the Electronic Arts that a layoff is that 500 to 1000 people there. That is to say that the publisher is about 5 percent of the staff relieve. The procedure follows a difficult year for Electronic Arts. The publisher sold, while 13 million copies of Battlefield 3, but raised an estimated $ 30 million in the marketing of the shooter. Further, it was EA a lot of money to spend on the acquisition of PopCap Games, makers of Bejeweled and Plants vs. Zombies. The exact amount with which the acquisition involved is unknown, but is at least 650 million dollars.
The intervention would also be needed because the stock price of EA for quite some time drops. When John Riccitiello, ceo of the publisher, in 2007, in taipei, taiwan, was the price at 62 dollars. That has now dropped to $ 16. Whether there is a correlation, it is not known, but in February of this year, Eric Brown, finance director of the publisher.
EA is not the only publisher that in heavy weather condition. THQ had earlier this year, 240 workers redundant and also Sega had to intervene. How many people at the Japanese publisher have to leave is unknown.
Update, 12:20: Electronic Arts has fired in the meantime denied. According to the publisher, there is constant talk of fluctuation in the workforce. “And leaving people”, told a spokesman of EA to Develop Online.