Electronic Arts Reports

REDWOOD CITY, CA – October 29, 2019 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) today announced preliminary financial results for its second fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2019.

“It was an excellent second quarter for Electronic Arts. Our new EA SPORTS titles are thrilling core fans and bringing in new players, and our ongoing live services are growing with deeply-engaged communities,” said CEO Andrew Wilson. “With new games like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Need for Speed, Plants vs. Zombies and more great content across our top franchises, we’re set to deliver a lot of fun and excitement to players this holiday season, and continue our momentum in this fiscal year.”

“The strong results this quarter illustrate the power of our live services and our core franchises. Strength in Ultimate Team, The Sims 4 and FIFA Online drove live services performance above our expectations,” said COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen. “Looking ahead, we are doubling down on live services combined with our core franchises. We’re investing in games that people play for longer and engage with much more deeply. This focus will continue to drive growth and profitability for the company through the remainder of this year and beyond.”   

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

• Digital net bookings* for the trailing twelve months was a record $3.883 billion, up 8% year-over-year and represents 78% of total net bookings.
• The number of FIFA Ultimate Team™ unique players increased 22% year-over-year. 
• The number of Madden Ultimate Team™ unique players increased 19% year-over-year.
• Apex Legends™ has had 70 million players life to date.
• The Sims™ 4 monthly average players are up more than 40% year-over-year.

* 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 and mobile platform fees.

Selected Financial Highlights and Metrics

• Net cash provided by operating activities was $37 million for the quarter and $1.748 billion for the trailing twelve months.
• EA repurchased 3.3 million shares for $306 million during the quarter, bringing the total to 12.9 million shares for $1.204 billion during the trailing twelve months. 

Impact of Certain Tax Matters
During the six months ended September 30, 2019, three separate tax events occurred:

• During the three months ended June 30, 2019, EA completed an internal transfer of some of its intellectual property rights to its Swiss subsidiary, where EA’s international business is headquartered;
• Also during the three months ended June 30, 2019, a decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Altera Corp. v. Commissioner regarding stock-based compensation expenses required EA to record a tax accrual; and 
• During the three months ended September 30, 2019, Switzerland changed its income tax rates.

As a result of these events, EA has recognized an income tax benefit of $1.705 billion, or $5.74 of earnings per share, during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020. EA recognized $1.080 billion, or $3.61 of earnings per share, of this income tax benefit during the three months ended June 30, 2019 and $625 million, or $2.11 of earnings per share, during the three months ended September 30, 2019.

Quarterly Financial Highlights

The following GAAP-based financial data and tax rate of 18% was used internally by company management to adjust its fiscal 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-Q for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2019.

TTM 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-Q for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2019.

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

Business Outlook as of October 29, 2019

The following forward-looking statements reflect expectations as of October 29, 2019. 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 2020 Expectations – Ending March 31, 2020

Financial metrics:

• Net revenue is expected to be approximately $5.410 billion.
• Change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) is expected to be approximately $(130) million.
• Mobile platform fees are expected to be approximately $(155) million.
• Net income is expected to be approximately $2.841 billion, approximately $1.705 billion of which is related to the one-time income tax benefits discussed above.
• Diluted earnings per share is expected to be approximately $9.57, approximately $5.74 of which is related to the one-time income tax benefits discussed above.
• Operating cash flow is expected to be approximately $1.625 billion.
• The Company estimates a share count of 297 million for purposes of calculating fiscal year 2020 diluted earnings per share.

Operational metric:

• Net bookings is expected to be approximately $5.125 billion.
  

Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2020 Expectations – Ending December 31, 2019
Financial metrics:

• Net revenue is expected to be approximately $1.510 billion.
• Change in deferred net revenue (online-enabled games) is expected to be approximately $470 million.
• Mobile platform fees are expected to be approximately $(40) million.
• Net income is expected to be approximately $272 million.
• Diluted earnings per share is expected to be approximately $0.92.
• The Company estimates a share count of 295 million for purposes of calculating third quarter fiscal year 2020 diluted earnings per share.

• Net bookings is expected to be approximately $1.940 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-Q for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2019.

Conference Call and Supporting Documents
Electronic Arts will host a conference call on October 29, 2019 at 2:00 pm PT (5:00 pm ET) to review its results for the second quarter ended September 30, 2019 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) 393-4306 (domestic) or (734) 385-2616 (international), using conference code 9877505 or via webcast at EA's IR Website at http://ir.ea.com.

EA has posted a slide presentation with a financial model of EA's historical results and guidance and Investor Accounting FAQ 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 November 13, 2019 at 855-859-2056 (domestic) or 404-537-3406 (international) using pin code 9877505. 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 2020 expectations under the heading “Business Outlook as of October 29, 2019,” and other information regarding EA's fiscal 2020 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: 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, 2019.

These forward-looking statements are current as of October 29, 2019. 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 September 30, 2019.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 September 30, 2019, except as required by law.

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 2019, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $4.95 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, Ultimate Team, Apex Legends, Battlefield, Need for Speed, Titanfall, The Sims 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.

For additional information, please contact:

Chris Evenden
Vice President, Investor Relations
650-628-0255
cevenden@ea.com

John Reseburg
Vice President, Corporate Communications
650-628-3601
jreseburg@ea.com