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After the exuberance comes the loan: EA's selling $550 million stock options to pay for PopCap

Interest bearing notes to mature July 2016

After the exuberance comes the loan: EA's selling $550 million stock options to pay for PopCap
Having announced it's going to splash the cash for PopCap, EA now has to finance a deal that will cost it $650 million in cash, $100 million in shares, plus another $50 million over four years for staff retention.

And, there's a potential $550 million in earnout if PopCap profits go through the roof too.

Paper for cash

In the short term, EA has taken a $550 million loan from the likes of Morgan Stanley, UBS and Morgan Chase so it could fund the cash part of the PopCap deal.

To pay them back however, it's announced it's going to offer $550 million of convertible stock options.

They will be sold in a private placement to finance companies, and convert into EA stock on 15 July 2016, also yielding interest payments on January 15 and July 15 annually, starting 2012.

To reduce potential dilution of current shareholders, EA will also have to sort out convertible note hedge and warrant transactions. It's all highly complex, but you can read all about in the press release.

[source: BusinessWire]
Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.