Reports that Electronic Arts was set to acquire Sean "Napster" Fanning's latest venture, a social network, are now official. EA announced last night that it acquired Napster's ThreeSF, owners of a social network called Rupture.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but earlier reports pegged the price tag at about $30 million. EA hasn't said what it plans to do with the social network - through Rupture, they gain an infrastructure to use, but not much of an existing user base.
Earlier reports had also suggested that the deal would make Fanning, as well as his co-founder Jon Baudanza, employees of EA. Mariam Sughayer of EA's corporate communications declined to comment on this or other details of the transaction, but told Kotaku that the company will announce more details in the weeks ahead.
Full press release follows the jump:
EA Acquires ThreeSF
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced it has acquired ThreeSF, Inc., a social network for gamers. Financial terms were not disclosed. More information about EA's plans for ThreeSF will be available in the weeks ahead.About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTSTM, EATM, EA SPORTS Freestyle TM and POGOTM. In fiscal 2008, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.67 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.
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