Microsoft's Peter Moore is No More

Yes, you read right, today is a sad day at Microsoft. Peter Moore, the head of Microsoft's Xbox division, is leaving Microsoft to go and take over to be the President of EA Sports. Here's the official press release from EA:

PETER MOORE NAMED PRESIDENT OF EA SPORTS LABEL

Industry Veteran To Lead EA SPORTS -- The Strongest Brand in Interactive Entertainment

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - July 17, 2007 - Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that Peter Moore has joined EA as President of the EA SPORTS™ Label. Moore joins EA from Microsoft Corporation where he served as corporate vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division, leading both the Xbox® and Games for Windows businesses. Moore begins at EA in September and will report to EA CEO John Riccitiello.

Mr. Moore's appointment rounds out the leadership of John Riccitiello's recent reorganization of EA into four autonomous Labels. Frank Gibeau serves as president of the EA Games Label; Kathy Vrabeck is president of EA Casual Entertainment; and Nancy Smith is president of The Sims™ Label.

"Peter Moore's proven record of leadership in games and sports makes him a terrific fit for heading up EA SPORTS," said EA CEO John Riccitiello. "As a partner at Microsoft and earlier, as a competitor, we've learned to respect his vision and leadership."

"The people at EA SPORTS have created one of the strongest brands in the entertainment industry and John Riccitiello is building an organization which will extend the company's leadership to new platforms and new audiences all over the world," said Peter Moore. "I couldn't be more excited about joining EA and moving my family back to the San Francisco Bay Area."

The EA SPORTS Label is the strongest brand in the games business with blockbuster franchises such as Madden NFL, NBA LIVE, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR®, FIFA Soccer, NASCAR®, and others. With Peter Moore's leadership and the passion, creativity and dedication of its development teams, EA SPORTS is expected to become even stronger in the years to come. EA plans to expand the EA SPORTS experience with new content, new platforms, new services and deep online integration.

At Microsoft, Mr. Moore was the president of the Xbox and Games for Windows businesses as well as game development at Microsoft Game Studios. Mr. Moore joined Microsoft in January 2003, originally as the head of marketing for the Xbox and Games division, bringing with him more than 20 years of experience and leadership in consumer businesses. Prior to joining Microsoft, Mr. Moore was president and COO of SEGA of America, where he was responsible for overseeing SEGA's video game business in North America. Before that, Mr. Moore was senior vice president of marketing at Reebok International Ltd., and earlier in his career, he was president of Patrick USA, the U.S. subsidiary of the popular French sportswear company, managing all the company's marketing, sales, finance and distribution.

You can't blame Moore though, there was just too many good things at EA that he just couldn't turn down. First, he gets to move back to the Bay Area, a place he has been wanting to move to for a while with his family. He is getting a yearly paid salary of $550,000 not including a bonus of up to $412,500. Plus he gets a $1.5 Million signing bonus if he agrees to stay with the company for at least 2 years. He also will get at least $4.26 Million worth of stock in EA, but wait that is not it, he will also get an added $330,000 for moving expenses. Like I said earlier, you can't blame him, money talks.

[From Kotaku]