The publisher of the popular Angry Birds mobile game — Chillingo — has reportedly been acquired by Electronic Arts for $20 million in cash. An EA spokesperson tells Reuters that, "By acquiring Chillingo, EA Mobile is increasing its market leadership on the Apple Platform as well as reaffirming its position as the world's leading wireless entertainment publisher."

Angry Birds has been a staple near the top of the charts in the iPhone app store and debuted on Android back in September (and was made free for Android users just this past weekend). Another recent release by Chillingo called "Cut the Rope" sold 1 million copies in just 10 days.

That said, Chillingo doesn't own the IP to those games. Rovio is the developer behind Angry Birds, while ZeptoLab makes Cut the Rope. As for what the EA deal means for the future of these franchises, a Rovio rep tells Mashable that his company "controls the Angry Birds brand and any future products" and to expect further details on Thursday.

For EA, the deal represents yet another move into the emerging areas of social and mobile gaming. Last year, the company acquired popular Facebook game developer Playfish for $400 million. In turn, EA recently launched a Facebook version of its popular "Madden" football game.