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Electronic Arts, Inc. (EA ) is a major American developer, marketer,publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28,1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early homecomputer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers andprogrammers responsible for its games. It is one of the largest video gamepublishers in the world.

Originally, EA was a home computing game publisher. In the late 1980s, thecompany began developing games in-house and supported consoles by the early1990s. EA later grew via acquisition of several successful developers. By theearly 2000s, EA had become one of the world's largest third-party publishers.On May 4, 2011, EA reported $3.8 billion in revenues for the fiscal year ending

March 2011. EA began to move toward direct distribution of digital games andservices with the acquisition of the popular online gaming site Pogo.com in2001. In 2009 EA acquired the London-based social gaming startupPlayfish, and in June 2011, EA launched Origin, an online service to selldownloadable games directly to consumers. In July, 2011 EA announced that ithad acquired PopCap Games, the company behind such hits as Plants vs.Zombies, Bejeweled, Peggle and Zuma.

EA is currently the No. 1 publisher in Western markets with a 16% segment

share. With the acquisition of PopCap, EA regained its position as the No. 2publisher of games on Facebook.

On May 4, 2011, EA reported $3.8 billion in revenues for the fiscal year endingMarch 2011. On July 27, 2011, EA reported fiscal first-quarter profits had morethan doubled on brisk sales of highly -anticipated sports and shooter games.

EA earned $221 million, or 66 cents a share, in the three months that endedJune 30. That's up from earnings of $96 million, or 29 cents a share, in thesame period a year earlier. Revenue rose 23 percent to $999 million from $815million.

EA has moved into providing new digital gaming goods and services (includingdownloadable games, paid downloadable content, mobile games and socialgames), and revenue from digital sales this year will likely total between $1.1billion and $1.15 billion, representing a dramatic change in the company'sbusiness model. EA earned $833 million in digital revenue last year.EAs earnings are marked by an ongoing difference between non-

GAAP and GAAP accounting which, for example, mandates deferrals of revenue related to services provided for online-enabled packaged goods and

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