NEWS - Monday, June 18, 2007
EA Reorganizes Into Four Labels
The four labels will be EA Sports, EA Games, EA Casual Entertainment and The Sims. Separate presidents will head up each label. Nancy Smith will lead The Sims label; Frank Gibeau will head up EA Games, which will manage titles including—but not limited to—Need for Speed, Medal of Honor, Spore, Battlefield, Burnout, Command & Conquer and The Simpsons; Kathy Vrabeck will head up the recently announced EA Casual Entertainment unit, which houses Harry Potter, Boogie, EA Mobile and Pogo.com; and EA executive VP Joel Linzner will lead EA Sports until a president is appointed for that label. EA CEO John Riccitiello said in a statement that the changes will occur “over the course of the coming months." He added that he expects the reorganization will bring about “more games and services for core consumers and new gamers and better focus on operational efficiency." In a Reuters report, Gibeau said that the reorganization is actually based on the structure used within The Sims unit. "We ran an organizational experiment and it was pretty damn successful. The Sims grew aggressively," he said. EA also said that two newly-founded groups—Central Development Services and Global Publishing—would support the new labels. Executive VP John Schappert will head up Central Development Services, which will focus on technology, operations and EA’s online platform. It will also house the office of the chief creative officer. The global publishing unit will be responsible for “strategic planning, field marketing, sales and distribution in Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America.” Existing finance, IT, legal and human resources will be maintained following the restructuring. Revenues for EA for the fiscal year ended March 31 were just over $3 billion, up 5 percent year over year. Shares for EA today dropped 78 cents, or 1.5 percent to $49.71, but rose to $49.76 in aftermarket trading.Source: http://www.next-gen.biz
