EA Reveals Strong 3rd Quarter Earnings

Great news for investors.

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) today announced preliminary financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2020.

“We’re bringing great entertainment to hundreds of millions of people all over the world,” said CEO Andrew Wilson. “Our amazing teams continue to deliver exceptional, high-quality experiences as more players connect with their friends and engage deeply with our games. With our expansion plans for EA SPORTS, strong catalogue of owned IP, leading live services, and ability to span every platform, we are growing to reach an even larger audience.”

“We delivered another strong quarter, driven by live services outperformance in Ultimate Team and Apex Legends,” said COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen. “We are raising our net bookings outlook for the full year on the strength we continue to see in our business. Looking further ahead, even with the upside this year, we anticipate delivering growth in fiscal 2022, driven by the next Battlefield.”

EA has posted a slide presentation and a financial model of EA’s historical results and guidance on EA’s IR website at www.ir.ea.com. EA will also post the prepared remarks and a transcript from the conference call on EA’s IR website. News and ongoing updates regarding EA and its games are available on EA’s blog at www.ea.com/news.

Selected Operating Highlights and Metrics

• Net bookings* for the trailing twelve months was $5.956 billion, up 8% year-over-year.
• Launched FIFA 21, Medal of Honor^TM: Above and Beyond, Need for Speed^TM Hot Pursuit Remastered, and NHL 21 during the quarter.
• Launched FIFA 21 and Madden NFL 21 on next generation consoles during the quarter.
• Over the past fiscal year, EA SPORTS^TM franchises have engaged more than 230 million people.
• FIFA Ultimate Team^TM had a record of nearly 6 million daily active players in December.
• Apex Legends^TM had 30% growth in new players, year-over-year.
• The Sims^TM 4, life to date, has more than 33 million players and reached record daily, weekly, and monthly average players in December.

* Net bookings is defined as the net amount of products and services sold digitally or sold-in physically in the period. Net bookings is calculated by adding total net revenue to the change in deferred net revenue for online-enabled games.

Selected Financial Highlights and Metrics

• Net cash provided by operating activities was $1.124 billion for the quarter and a record $2.061 billion for the trailing twelve months.
• EA repurchased 2.5 million shares for $326 million during the quarter, bringing the total for the last twelve months to 5.9 million shares for $695 million.
• EA paid a cash dividend of $0.17 per share during the quarter.

Dividend

EA has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.17 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on March 24, 2021 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 3, 2021.

Quarterly Financial Highlights

The following GAAP-based financial data and tax rate of 18% was used internally by company management to adjust its GAAP results in order to assess EA’s operating results:

For more information about the nature of the GAAP-based financial data, please refer to EA’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020.

Financial Highlights for the Trailing Twelve Months

The following GAAP-based financial data and tax rate of 18% was used internally by company management to adjust its GAAP results in order to assess EA’s operating results:

For more information about the nature of the GAAP-based financial data, please refer to EA’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020.

Operating Metric

The following is a calculation of our total net bookings for the periods presented:

Business Outlook as of February 2, 2021

The following forward-looking statements reflect expectations as of February 2, 2021. Electronic Arts assumes no obligation to update these statements. Results may be materially different and are affected by many factors detailed in this release and in EA’s annual and quarterly SEC filings.

Fiscal Year 2021 Expectations – Ending March 31, 2021

Financial metrics:

• Net revenue is expected to be approximately $5.600 billion.
  • Change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) is expected to be approximately $475 million.
• Net income is expected to be approximately $742 million.
• Diluted earnings per share is expected to be approximately $2.54.
• Operating cash flow is expected to be approximately $1.850 billion.
• The Company estimates a share count of 292 million for purposes of calculating fiscal year 2021 diluted earnings per share.

Operational metric:

• Net bookings is expected to be approximately $6.075 billion.

In addition, the following outlook for GAAP-based financial data and a long-term tax rate of 18% are used internally by EA to adjust our GAAP expectations to assess EA’s operating results and plan for future periods:

Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2021 Expectations – Ending March 31, 2021

Financial metrics:

• Net revenue is expected to be approximately $1.317 billion.
  • Change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) is expected to be approximately $58 million.
• Net loss is expected to be approximately ($19) million; this forecast includes the impact of an incremental tax accounting charge of ($152) million.
• Loss per share is expected to be approximately ($0.07), which includes ($0.52) per share from the tax accounting charge.
• The Company estimates a GAAP basic and diluted share count of 289 million shares due to a forecasted net loss. If the Company reports net income instead of a net loss, diluted share count for calculating diluted earnings per share would be 292 million shares.

Operational metric:

• Net bookings is expected to be approximately $1.375 billion.

In addition, the following outlook for GAAP-based financial data and a long-term tax rate of 18% are used internally by EA to adjust our GAAP expectations to assess EA’s operating results and plan for future periods:

For more information about the nature of the GAAP-based financial data, please refer to EA’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020.

Conference Call and Supporting Documents

Electronic Arts will host a conference call on February 2, 2021 at 2:00 pm PT (5:00 pm ET) to review its results for the third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2020 and its outlook for the future. During the course of the call, Electronic Arts may disclose material developments affecting its business and/or financial performance. Listeners may access the conference call live through the following dial-in number (866) 324-3683 (domestic) or (509) 844-0959 (international), using the conference code 3695237 or via webcast at EA’s IR Website at https://ir.ea.com.

EA has posted a slide presentation with a financial model of EA’s historical results and guidance on EA’s IR Website. EA will also post the prepared remarks and a transcript from the conference call on EA’s IR Website.

A dial-in replay of the conference call will be available until February 16, 2021 at 855-859-2056 (domestic) or 404-537-3406 (international) using pin code 3695237. An audio webcast replay of the conference call will be available for one year on EA’s IR Website.

Forward-Looking Statements

Some statements set forth in this release, including the information relating to EA’s fiscal 2021 expectations under the heading “Business Outlook as of February 2, 2021,” and other information regarding EA’s fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2022 expectations contain forward-looking statements that are subject to change. Statements including words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “estimate,” “plan,” “predict,” “seek,” “goal,” “will,” “may,” “likely,” “should,” “could” (and the negative of any of these terms), “future” and similar expressions also identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and reflect management’s current expectations. Our actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements.

Some of the factors which could cause the Company’s results to differ materially from its expectations include the following: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, sales of the Company’s products and services; the Company’s ability to develop and support digital products and services, including managing online security and privacy; outages of our products, services and technological infrastructure; the Company’s ability to manage expenses; the competition in the interactive entertainment industry; governmental regulations; the effectiveness of the Company’s sales and marketing programs; timely development and release of the Company’s products and services; the Company’s ability to realize the anticipated benefits of acquisitions; the consumer demand for, and the availability of an adequate supply of console hardware units; the Company’s ability to predict consumer preferences among competing platforms; the Company’s ability to develop and implement new technology; foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; general economic conditions; changes in our tax rates or tax laws; and other factors described in Part II, Item 1A of Electronic Arts’ latest Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q under the heading “Risk Factors”, as well as in other documents we have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020.

These forward-looking statements are current as of February 2, 2021. Electronic Arts assumes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statement for any reason, except as required by law. In addition, the preliminary financial results set forth in this release are estimates based on information currently available to Electronic Arts.

While Electronic Arts believes these estimates are meaningful, they could differ from the actual amounts that Electronic Arts ultimately reports in its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2020. Electronic Arts assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these estimates prior to filing its Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2020.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA) is a global leader in digital interactive entertainment. The Company develops and delivers games, content and online services for Internet-connected consoles, mobile devices and personal computers.

In fiscal year 2020, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $5.5 billion. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, EA is recognized for a portfolio of critically acclaimed, high-quality brands such as EA SPORTS™ FIFA, Battlefield™, Apex Legends™, The Sims™, Madden NFL, Need for Speed™, Titanfall™ and Plants vs. Zombies™. More information about EA is available at www.ea.com/news.

EA SPORTS, Medal of Honor, Ultimate Team, Battlefield, Need for Speed, Apex Legends, The Sims, Titanfall and Plants vs. Zombies are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. John Madden, NFL, and FIFA are the property of their respective owners and used with permission.

Results (in $ millions, except per share data)

The following table reports the variance of the actuals versus our guidance provided on November 5, 2020 for the three months ended December 31, 2020 plus a comparison to the actuals for the three months ended December 31, 2019.

¹The change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of cash flows does not necessarily equal the change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations primarily due to the impact of unrecognized gains/losses on cash flow hedges.

In fiscal 2021, EA changed the way in which it presents net revenue. Periods prior to the first quarter of fiscal 2021 have been recast for comparability to align with these changes. For more information please see the Financial Reporting FAQ on our Investor Relations Website.

²Derived from audited consolidated financial statements.

¹The change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of cash flows does not necessarily equal the change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations primarily due to the impact of unrecognized gains/losses on cash flow hedges.

In fiscal 2021, EA changed the way in which it presents net revenue. Periods prior to the first quarter of fiscal 2021 have been recast for comparability to align with these changes. For more information please see the Financial Reporting FAQ on our Investor Relations Website.

¹The change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of cash flows does not necessarily equal the change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations primarily due to the impact of unrecognized gains/losses on cash flow hedges.

In fiscal 2021, EA changed the way in which it presents net revenue. Periods prior to the first quarter of fiscal 2021 have been recast for comparability to align with these changes. For more information please see the Financial Reporting FAQ on our Investor Relations Website.