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EA acquires Firemint for undisclosed fee

Deal to be closed within next 4 weeks

EA acquires Firemint for undisclosed fee
Six months after it made its move for publishing powerhouse Chillingo, EA has announced it is to acquire Australian studio Firemint for an undisclosed fee.

The company claims the deal for Firemint, best known for the likes of Flight Control and Real Racing, will be closed within the next four weeks.

Flying high

"The Firemint team is remarkable for its critical and commercial success," said EA Interactive executive veep and general manager VP Barry Cottle.

"Having them as part of EAi will accelerate our position as worldwide leader in game development for mobile devices and online gaming platforms."
Flight Control, which launched on iPhone in March 2009, surpassed sales of 3.8 million on the platform back in January.

Deal derby

Cottle says the Firemint deal, which is not material to the company, directly follows on from another buyout, this time of cross-platform development and porting specialist Mobile Post Production (MPP).

"The added technical expertise of MPP, combined with the creative talent of Firemint and our EAi studio teams, fuels EA’s leadership in delivering top selling, high quality games across mobile phones and smartphones, tablets and future digital interactive entertainment platforms," he added.

It's not yet been revealed what impact, if any, this will have on Firemint's 60 strong team.

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.