Electronic Arts To Hire Back Workers In Low-Cost Locations
By Scott Morrison, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- Videogame publisher Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS)
will hire back workers in low-cost locations "to maintain capacity," just days
after the company announced it would close several facilities and cut 1,500
jobs, Chief Financial Officer Eric Brown said Thursday.
"We will be hiring back positions in low-cost locations to maintain capacity,"
he said at the BMO Capital Markets Digital Entertainment Conference in New York,
which was broadcast over the Internet.
Brown didn't specify how many workers the Redwood City, Calif.-based company
expected to hire, nor did he say when and where those hires would occur.
EA said this week that it expects to save at least $100 million annually by
closing several facilities and eliminating 1,500 jobs by next March. The cuts,
which follow the closure of development and publishing facilities a year ago,
will enable EA to focus on fewer games amid an industry-wide slump.
Brown also said EA's agreed acquisition of Playfish Ltd., a London-based maker
of online social games, will be accretive in fiscal 2011. He said Playfish has
60 million monthly active users and has a revenue run rate of about $75 million.
EA earlier this week agreed to buy Playfish for at least $275 million.
The company this week also reported a wider quarterly loss as revenue fell 12%
.
Shares in EA fell 23 cents to $18.22 on Thursday.
-By Scott Morrison, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-765-6118; scott.morrison@
dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
11-12-091635ET
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