EA acquired for US$55 billion by consortium that includes Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund
This deal will take the company private, and is set to close in 2027.
Electronic Arts (EA) announced that it has been acquired by an investor consortium at an approximate total value of US$55 billion, and that the company will be taken private. This comes days after the Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported that such a deal was in “advanced talks.”
The consortium that bought out EA consists of three companies: private equity firm Silver Lake, investment firm Affinity Partners (founded by U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner), and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the country’s sovereign wealth fund.
EA shareholders will receive US$210 in cash per share, which the company says is a 25 percent premium on its share price of US$168.32 at market close on 25 September. The transaction is set to close in Q1 FY27, after which EA stock will no longer be publicly listed.
The deal will be funded by a US$36 billion equity investment from the three firms (including a roll-over of PIF’s existing 9.9 percent stock in EA), as well as US$20 billion of debt financing committed by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A..
It’s set to be the largest leveraged buyout on record. The US$55 billion value also comes close to Microsoft’s buyout of Activision Blizzard in 2023, which was valued at US$68.7 billion and still holds the title of the largest acquisition in gaming history.
This announcement was made just a couple weeks before the release of EA’s highly anticipated Battlefield 6.
An interesting note is that this could represent Saudi Arabia’s efforts to diversify its economy through gaming, outlined through its National Gaming and Esports Strategy. Apart from hosting the Esports World Cup, the 2025 edition of which saw a US$70 million total prize pool, the country was also linked to the acquisition of Pokemon Go’s developer Niantic by Scopely, a video game company owned by the PIF’s Savvy Games Group.
This announcement also comes right before the release of Battlefield 6, EA’s next triple-A title that promises to breathe new life into the FPS franchise. EA’s CEO Andrew Wilson will retain his post after the deal goes through, and the company will remain headquartered in California.