Do I take too long or what?

Folks, it seems I enjoy dropping the ball when it comes to E3. But before I go into any talks, it seems PopCap games, well known for classics like Plants vs Zombies and Bejeweled, is in rumors of being bought out.

Huge news in the gaming world: PopCap Games, the company behind such hits as Plants vs Zombies and Bejeweled, is in the process of being acquired — and we’re hearing from multiple sources that the price is over $1 billion.

The question now is who the buyer is. The obvious possibility is Zynga, which has made a string of game-related acquisitions over the last year. But we’re hearing they’re out. Our sources say that Zynga did indeed kick the tires hard on a potential acquisition, but it looks like the company couldn’t get comfortable with the price PopCap was asking for.

Popcap’s revenues are in the range of $100-150 million, we hear — and a price of over $1 billion would have put the deal at a possible 10x multiple, which may have been too rich for Zynga’s blood. So who else could it be?

We’ve heard that it might be videogaming powerhouse Electronic Arts, though the acquisition would be a very large one for the company (EA’s market cap is $7.49 billion). That said, it wouldn’t be EA’s first big bet on a hot gaming startup: they acquired Playfish in 2009 for up to $400 million after earnouts.

Another possibility would be a company in Asia that’s looking to break into the stateside gaming market, similar to the idea behind DeNA’s $300 million+ acquisition of ngmoco last October. One candidate is massive Chinese company Tencent, which has a massive market cap (and some games of their own). But there are other possibilities that would fit that profile as well — we’ll keep digging.

Zynga. EA. An Asian company like Tencent. Who knows who will get PopCap games? Though I heard some won't be happy if its EA since they claim "Oh but they will pump games out fast." That's exactly what I want. Yearly releases of Plants vs Zombies. Ideas include "Plants vs Zombies: Amusement Park," "Plants vs Zombies in Space" and my favorite "Plants vs Zombies: Liberal Zombie Armageddon at Washington."
Eric Cantor would be enjoying that game than doing his job.

Works Cited:
Tech Crunch