The makers of Peggle, Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled are reportedly in the process of being snapped up by someone with very, very deep pockets. The rumored mystery buyer may be paying more than $1 billion USD for the right to PopCap's brand of casual, commercially successful fun.
TechCrunch names a few possible buyers in its report on the buyout, specifically Electronic Arts, Facebook game giant Zynga and China's Tencent. That last name, if you're not familiar with it, boasts an astounding $383.41 billion market cap, making a purchase of PopCap seem like an easy thing to squeeze into the budget.
That said, EA's not afraid to spend and spend big. It snapped up BioWare and Pandemic in 2007 for $860 million and purchased casual games maker Playfish last year in a deal somewhere between $300 million and $400 million.
There's no official confirmation from PopCap on the deal yet, with TechCrunch relying on unnamed sources for its report.
Update: Contacted for comment PopCap Games reps tell Kotaku: "Per company policy, we do not comment on rumors and speculation of this nature." Future PopCapper Jennifer Kye tweeted (then deleted) that TechCrunch's story was "Not true. Rumor debunked." citing a PopCap employee. Kotaku has also heard privately that the story is bogus.
PopCap Games To Be Acquired For $1 Billion+ [TechCrunch]