Electronic Arts to Buy Golf Clash Maker for $1.4 Billion

John J. Edwards III, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) -- Video-game giant Electronic Arts Inc. agreed to buy Playdemic Ltd., maker of the Golf Clash mobile game, from AT&T Inc.’s Warner Bros. Games for $1.4 billion in cash.

The Playdemic acquisition is part of EA’s mobile growth strategy, in which it has built a stable of more than 15 live services in an array of game categories, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Golf Clash, in which players around the world can compete in real time, has had more than 80 million global downloads.

Redwood City, California-based EA is best known for its Madden NFL, Sims and Battlefield franchises. The company earlier this month became one of several high-profile cyberattack victims, with hackers stealing its source code and related internal tools.

For Warner Bros. Games, unloading Playdemic fits with its strategy of focusing on games based on Warner Bros. intellectual property, unit President David Haddad said in the statement. The gaming division is part of AT&T’s WarnerMedia, which is linking up with Discovery Inc. in a blockbuster merger.

EA shares were down 0.1% to $140.68 in New York trading at 9:39 a.m. AT&T was up 0.2% to $28.84.

(Updates with shares in final paragraph.)