All Things Digital has posted up a rumor that Chillingo is being bought, and it's most likely being bought by EA.
You will remember Chillingo best for publishing Angry Birds and Cut The Rope.
You will remember Chillingo best for publishing Angry Birds and Cut The Rope.
Source: http://kara.allthingsd.com/20101020...ublisher-chillingo-could-be-next-in-the-hand/All Things Digital said:Whats the Next Deal in Online Gaming? Sources Say Angry Birds Publisher Chillingo Could Be Next in the Hand.
by Kara Swisher
Posted on October 20, 2010 at 2:46 AM PT
The online and mobile gaming sector has been a hotbed of deal activity over the the last year, from the sale of Playdom for $750 million and Tapulous to Disney to the acquisition of Playfish by Electronic Arts for $400 million to the multitude of small developers being bought up by Zynga.
Most recently, Ngmoco was sold to Japans DeNA for $400 million.
So whats the next to go? Several sources said that U.K.-based Chillingo, arguably the hottest of the downloadable game publishersmostly via apps for the Apple iPhone and iPadis close to a sale to a bigger company.
The likely acquirer: EA, with Intel as a dark horse candidate.
The price estimates for Chillingo range from $80 million to close to $200 million.
There are a number of other companies who could be interested in Chillingo, such as Gameloft, Activision Blizzard, DeNA and even Microsofts gaming unit.
But sources said EA is the one targeting Chillingo, which describes itself as working with a a global network of independent development studios and leverages its network of marketing channels and publishing strength to promote and distribute games.
Among Chillingos biggest hit titles are Angry Birds published by its Clickgamer division and developed by Finlands Rovio.
Chillingo was one of the first to publish on the iPhone platform and is planning upcoming glames to be released on Googles Android mobile operating system.
More recently, it released Cut the Rope, which was developed by Russias ZeptoLab, sold one million copies in less than 10 days and is the No. 1 paid app in the App Store.
And Chillingo recently announced a half-dozen new games for the Apple App Store.
The company also has Crystal, an open social gaming platform for the casual gaming community.
BoomTown has calls into Chillingo and EA for comment.