When EA lost its long coveted title as the number one third-party game publisher of the world last year, the giant game monolith awakened from its lethargic slumber of complacency and set the fires going in trying to make some needed changes.
It hired Microsoft’s Peter Moore to head up EA’s sports division and now word has come from Mount EA that CFO, Warren Jenson has been given the boot.
Jensen formerly worked as a senior vice president and chief financial officer for Amazon.com and jumped aboard EA in June of 2002. Jensen will continue his role till the end of March and will stay on in order to train his replacement. He didn’t divulge any information as to his future plans but he did say, "It’s time for me to write the next chapter in my career."
Electronic Arts apparently already has a candidate ready to take Jensen’s place and will announce Jenson’s successor sometime soon.
Arvind Bhatia, an analyst for the firm Stern Agee said, "We feel that this event is unlikely to impact the stock negatively. Moreover, in the past we have heard some rumblings with regards to a need for a change at this position at [EA]."
But simple changes in the rank and file at EAHQ won’t be enought to turn the fortunes of Electronic Arts around; it will also have to seriously rethink its business model of buying up game companies, breaking away from franchise titles and developing its own original game content. Without these elements in place, EA is doomed to slip even further down the ranks while other game companies such as Ubisoft are hot on EA’s trail.
[via next-gen]
