UPDATE 1-EA reorganizes into four business units
(Adds details, executive comment, share price)
SAN FRANCISCO, June 18 (Reuters) - Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS.O) said on Friday it will reorganize into four units, part of a drive by its new chief executive to make the world's biggest video game publisher more efficient.
Under the plan by Chief Executive John Riccitiello, EA will consist of four units focusing on sports, casual games, its "Sims" franchise, and other games.
EA said the changes, which will not involve job losses, should help it save money at a time when the cost of developing a top-tier game can run up to $20 million.
Riccitiello, the company's former chief operating officer who left in 2004 and rejoined in April, said last month that he intended to realign the company and improve its ability to act quickly.
"He's had a very strong and aggressive change agenda and what he's been framing as a challenge to the management team is that we are facing a market that is incredibly diverse and complex," said Frank Gibeau, head of the new EA Games unit.
The change "streamlines decision-making, increases speed to market, enchances accountability and allows us to be more experimental, so we can really open up and leverage our scale long-term", Gibeau said in an interview.
The changes were based on the success of a pilot program that placed games based on "The Sims" franchise into their own unit, EA said.
"We ran an organizational experiment and it was pretty damn successful. The Sims grew aggressively," Gibeau said.
Gibeau will be in charge of the largest unit of EA games, including its "Battlefield" series of online shooters, "Need for Speed" street-racing titles, and its "Command & Conquer" strategy games.
EA Sports, which includes the company's "Madden" football, "Tiger Woods PGA Tour" golf and "NASCAR" racing games, will be run by Executive Vice President Joel Linzner until a permanent head can be found.
Earlier this month, EA recruited Kathy Vrabeck, former head of publishing for rival Activision Inc. (ATVI.O), to head its casual games unit. Such games, which are usually played online or on mobile phones, are a small but rapidly growing part of the industry.
Shares in EA rose 5 cents in extended trading to $49.76 after falling 1.5 percent on Nasdaq.
((Reporting by Scott Hillis, editing Leslie Gevirtz; San Francisco Newsroom, e-mail: scott.hillis@reuters.com, +1 415 677 2505)) Keywords: ELECTRONICARTS REORG/
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