Eaceo Announces departure: 6-year term company shares down 60%

EA CEO John Ricitillo Sina Science and Technology news, Beijing time March 19, video game giant EA CEO John Ricitillo (John Riccitiello) announced in Monday that he will leave at the end of the month. In his 6 years as CEO, EA shares fell more than 60%. The company will start looking for long-term CEOs, both internal and external, after Ricitillo's departure, EA said. Ricitillo to EA Executive Chairman Larry Prost (Larry Probst) issued a memo, said EA performance "will be at or slightly below the company's January performance expectations of the lower limit, we failed to achieve a year ago the internal business plan" goal. EA is transitioning to a digital-oriented business; Under his leadership, EA launched a game release platform called origin. In addition, he led EA to acquire mobile game developer PopCap, the latter is the "Gem Bejeweled" (bejeweled) and other games developers. "You are sailing in a rapidly changing industry, creating a digital business worth about $1.5 billion trillion, and the business is growing rapidly," Ricitillo in a letter to EA employees. You have made significant investments to create EA's own platform, and these investments are now providing reliable returns. He also said: "I resigned to allow EA to have a talented leader in the 2014 fiscal year clean start again." "EA's share price has risen by more than 3% per cent in the trading after the news." EA declined to comment. (Tangfeng)