Word that PopCap Games is in talks to be acquired — perhaps by Electronics Arts — for more than $1 billion certainly has the technology community buzzing. But what exactly would an acquirer get by purchasing the 11-year-old Seattle game maker? For one, they’d gobble up a profitable company that’s produced hit after hit in the games business, a tough achievement that not many have been able to replicate.
Even still, more than $1 billion would be a massive valuation uptick for the company which had been considered an IPO candidate. A buyout certainly would squash those IPO dreams, but it could make the founders and top execs fabulously rich.
Here’s a look at PopCap by the numbers.
8 billion: Number of hours game players have spent playing Bejeweled, PopCap’s blockbuster (and original) gem-swapping puzzle game.
1.5 Billion: Estimated number of downloads of PopCap’s titles since the company was founded in 2000.
$1 billion: Unconfirmed purchase price, reported by TechCrunch, that Electronic Arts is expected to pay for PopCap.
150 million: Number of mobile phones on which Bejeweled has been installed since 2004.
$100 million +: Estimated sales at PopCap in 2010.
50 million: Number of unit sales of Bejeweled.
$22.5 million: Amount of venture capital that PopCap raised in 2009 from Meritech Capital and others, the company’s first outside financing round.
2000: Year that John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka founded PopCap Games.
400: Number of employees PopCap employs between offices in Seattle, San Francisco, Vancouver, B.C., Dublin, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo.
41: Number of movie offer deals for PopCap’s hit Plants vs. Zombies.
4.3: Rate, in seconds, by which a copy of Bejeweled sells.