TechTaffy

tech:

taffy

Lionel Messi Signs With EA Sports As Ambassador

By TechTaffy Desk

By Sudarshana Banerjee

Electronic Arts (EA) has signed soccer player Lionel Messi to a multi-year endorsement contract that will see him become the global face of the EA SPORTS FIFA Soccer franchise. The deal sees the FIFA Ballon d’Or 2010 winner transfer to EA SPORTS and make his debut in March, 2012 on the cover of FIFA Street.

Matt Bilbey (Vice president and GM,Soccer, EA SPORTS): Our FIFA franchise is the number one selling sports videogame franchise in the world, and Lionel Messi is the number one player in the world, so this agreement is a true partnership of superstars.

The partnership will see Messi become an EA SPORTS Ambassador. EA SPORTS will also team up with the ‘Leo Messi Foundation’ to support social, educational and health care related initiatives for children around the world.

The EA SPORTS FIFA Soccer series, now in its 19th year, sold 3.2 million copies of FIFA Soccer 12 in the first five days after launching to become the biggest launch in the history of sports videogames.

Playing for FC Barcelona, Messi received the prestigious FIFA Ballon d’Or 2010 award as the top soccer player in the world, was UEFA Champions League Top Goal Scorer the past three years, is the three-time La Liga Player of the Year, and has made the shortlist for the 2011 FIFA Ballon d’Or. At just 24, Messi has scored over 200 goals in all competitions and currently sits second in the rankings of Barcelona’s all-time leading goal scorers. He has scored 27 goals and 14 assists in 29 games this season in all competitions.

 

Just in

Series A

Tembo raises $14M

Cincinnati, Ohio-based Tembo, a Postgres managed service provider, has raised $14 million in a Series A funding round.
Around the web

Raspberry Pi is now a public company — TC

Raspberry Pi priced its IPO on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning at £2.80 per share, valuing it at £542 million, or $690 million at today’s exchange rate, writes Romain Dillet. 
Fundings

AlphaSense raises $650M

AlphaSense, a market intelligence and search platform, has raised $650 million in funding, co-led by Viking Global Investors and BDT & MSD Partners.
Around the web

Elon Musk’s xAI raises $6B to take on OpenAI — VentureBeat

Confirming reports from April, the series B investment comes from the participation of multiple known venture capital firms and investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (A16z), Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Kingdom Holding, writes Shubham Sharma. 
IT

Capgemini partners with DARPA to explore quantum computing for carbon capture

Capgemini Government Solutions has launched a new initiative with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to investigate quantum computing's potential in carbon capture.