Today is a big day for tech M&A sector.
Google clearly identifies mobile as the source of their growth beyond the web. Today they acquired mobile ad company AdMob for $750M.
Google has just announced that it has acquired AdMob
, the mobile ad platform that has been especially popular on the iPhone, for $750 million. This is a big win for the company’s early investors, which include Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners (this is a huge day for Accel — they were also investors in Playfish, which was just acquired by EA). More recent investors include DFJ and Northgate Capital.
Today also saw EA acquiring web social gaming company Playfish for $300M with another $100M in earn outs.
After lengthy negotiations, Electronic Arts closed it’s anticipated acquisition of social gaming startup Playfish for $275 million in cash. An additional $25 million in stock will be set aside for retaining the top talent at the startup, and another $100 million in earnouts are part of the deal as well if the business hits certain milestones. So the total value of the deal could amount to as much as $400 million when all is said and done. Although, earnouts have a tendency to come up short (see Skype).
Playfish is based in London, and has raised $21 million from Accel Partners and Index ventures. The Accel investment is from its European fund. Playfish’s estimated annual revenues are $75 million.