Given it's published iPhone hits such as the 10 million selling Angry Birds and recent 1 million seller Cut the Rope, rumours regarding interest in UK publisher Chillingo have been swirling around for some time. 

Now, US website All Things Digital is reporting EA is in the process of tabling an offer for the publisher.

Certainly PocketGamer.biz has also heard that EA has been in talks with Chillingo from some weeks.

Big business

All Things Digital reckons such a move could cost EA anywhere in the region of $80 million to $200 million - on the high scale we reckon - but it thinks other companies could also be kicking the tires. 

Rival mobile publisher Gameloft, social specialist DeNA (fresh from the buyout of ngmoco) are said to be interested too, with Activision, Microsoft and even Intel other big names apparently in the hat.

Concrete Chillingo?

Nonetheless, although Chillingo carries much weight in the mobile field – its output in terms of sheer numbers on iPhone rivalling anyone – the publisher would still be an interesting purchase for EA, given it lacks full IP rights for many of the games it puts out.

The firm only holds the publishing rights to Angry Birds on iOS and PSP Minis, for instance, with the game's recent stellar launch on Android handled in-house by Finnish developer Rovio.

So while the publisher has built a strong brand for itself upon the back of such App Store successes, it will be interesting to see just how much EA – or any rival suitors – consider Chillingo to be worth when it comes to wider cross platform commercialisation. 

[source: All Things Digital]