Correspondents in California | October 12, 2007

SEEKING to fill gaps in its product line-up, video game publisher Electronic Arts said it would acquire two software studios from Elevation Partners in a deal worth $US860 million ($956.65 million), the largest in its history.

The studios, BioWare and Pandemic Studios, are known for their action, adventure and role-playing games. Elevation owns their parent, VG Holding.

EA, the world’s leading video game publisher, is known for blockbusters such as “The Sims” and “Madden NFL,” but it has at times had less than 10 per cent of the lucrative market for role-playing, action and adventure games.

“These guys are powerhouses there, and this acquisition puts us in a strong competitive position now,” Frank Gibeau, president of EA Games, said.

Under the terms of the deal, EA will pay VG stockholders up to $US620 million in cash and issue as much as $US155 million in equity to some of the company’s employees. The shares will be subject to certain time- and performance-restricted vesting criteria.

EA will also assume about $US50 million in outstanding VG stock options and has agreed to lend VG up to $US35 million until the deal closes.

Correspondents in North Carolina | October 12, 2007

GOOGLE is bringing the world of online video and map-making closer by allowing users of its Google Earth software to watch and hear YouTube videos mapped to specific locations.

Google is offering a new YouTube video overlay on top of its Google Earth three-dimensional visualisation software, which combines satellite images, maps, terrain and buildings of the world.

By allowing YouTube creators to geographically locate their videos on a map of the world, Google enables internet users to zoom in on locations around the planet and watch
YouTube tied to that place.

For example, travellers to Maui might find videos of surfing, snorkelling or exotic fish, while virtual visitors to Chamonix-Mont Blanc can watch mountaintop ski videos in the Alps.

Google Earth users can already view user-contributed photos uploaded to Panoramio, a photo-mapping service Google acquired in May. In the case of YouTube videos, video creators assign geographical information to their works – a process also known as “geo-tagging” – as they upload them to the site.

Google Earth users can watch but not geo-tag videos, a Google spokeswoman said.

Michael Sainsbury | October 11, 2007

TELSTRA has failed in a bid to get the federal Government to release confidential documents relating to the $1.9 billion regional broadband project, as part of the telco’s court case against Communications Minister Helen Coonan.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan vindicated after Justice Peter Graham dismissed Telstra’s application to access confidential Opel documents

Telstra’s shareholders will now be forced to pay the minister’s costs.

Federal Court judge Peter Graham dismissed Telstra’s application, which sought access to government documents about the $938 million tender awarded to the Optus/Elders (Opel) consortium in order to determine whether Telstra had grounds to sue over the decision.

It is the latest blow in Telstra’s multi-pronged legal attack on the Government. Telstra recently withdrew a legal action against the Government over new conditions on its licence regarding regional mobile phone coverage.

But Telstra is still fighting the Government in the High Court, where it wants the entire telecommunications regulatory regime declared unconstitutional.

“The judgment speaks for itself,” a spokesman for Senator Coonan said of the latest decision.

Telstra’s regional broadband bid was dismissed by the Government because the telco did not want to commit any of its own networks or funds to the project.

The winning Opel proposal committed $900 million in cash, networks and other assets to the Broadband Connect project.

Telstra yesterday continued to argue with the umpire’s decision.