Shawn Fanning's Incredible Shrinking Pay Day: EA Bought Game Company for $15M, Not $30M

From the can't-believe-everything-you-read department: Earlier this year, reports circulated (which we repeated) that Napster founder Shawn Fanning had finally made some real money by selling his ThreeSF startup to Electronic Arts (ERTS) for $30 million. They were half-right: Turns out EA only paid $15 million for the company, which it bought for its Rupture social network.

EA had never publicly disclosed a purchase price, but apparently didn't feel like correcting reports citing people "familiar with the deal." But the company spells it out in its latest 10-Q:

On May 28, 2008, we acquired all of the outstanding shares of ThreeSF, Inc. for an aggregate purchase price of $15 million in cash, including transaction costs. Based in San Francisco, California, ThreeSF’s Rupture service is a social network for gamers. We expect this acquisition will enhance our ability to incorporate online social networking in our games.

And if you're curious about what exactly you get when you plunk down $15 million for a startup these days, EA spells that out, too:

Current Assets: $1 million
Long-term assets: $1 million
Acquired in-process technology: $1 million
Goodwill: $9 million
Finite-lived intangibles: $6 million
Liabilities: ($3 million)

See Also:
Napster Founder Shawn Fanning Finally Cashes In
EA Buying Shawn Fanning's Rupture For $30 Million