OREANDA-NEWS. Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) today announced that it intends to offer, subject to market and other conditions, senior notes in a public offering.

EA intends to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, including but not limited to, the payment of amounts due upon conversion, maturity or repurchase of EA’s 0.75% Convertible Senior Notes due 2016, and the repurchase of EA shares, including under the new $500 million stock repurchase program described below.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, BNP Paribas Securities Corp., Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC will act as joint book-running managers for the offering.

EA also announced a new $500 million stock repurchase program contingent upon the launch of the senior notes offering. EA expects to complete this new program over the next several months. This new program is incremental to the existing two-year $1 billion stock repurchase program announced in May 2015, of which approximately $599 million remains outstanding and is expected to be completed over the next 15 months.

The offering of senior notes is being made pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3 that has previously been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). A preliminary prospectus supplement, together with the accompanying prospectus, related to this offering has been filed with the SEC and is available on the SEC’s website, http://www.sec.gov. Copies of the preliminary prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus related to this offering may be obtained by contacting: J.P. Morgan Securities LLC at (212) 834-4533, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated toll free at (800) 294-1322, BNP Paribas Securities Corp. toll free at (800) 854-5674, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. toll free at (800) 831-9146 or Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC toll free at (866) 718-1649.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the securities described herein, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.