EA have bought several major developers over the years like Bioware and PopCap to name a couple of the more recent. But according to an article over at Games Industry, there are no more major acquisitions planned. Instead, the Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen says they rather try to find great ideas and build them from the ground up themselves considering the often marginal performance of the bought developers:
"I think our history with acquisitions is somewhat marginal in performance. We have some that are spectacular, and some that didn't do so well. It's a headcount business, right? You're buying headcount, and that's always difficult to manage in acquisitions. It doesn't mean we won't do them, but I think where we've been most successful is in smaller acquisitions that we've integrated very quickly."
Jorgensen follows up and explains the strategy further:
"I'm also a huge believer--I think the team is a huge believer--that we've got great opportunities inside our organization. We've built a really strong bench of talent at all levels, and our view is just [to] find great ideas, either through our own development or through licensed IP, and leverage your talent base to try to build that. "