EA to come under Saudi ownership next week: $55 billion LBO in closing phase

Electronic Arts announces that its leveraged buyout for $55 billion is expected to be completed next week—the Saudi PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners (Jared Kushner) will take control and take EA private.

The closing for next week

It's official: EA has announced that the $55 billion leveraged buyout that will take the American giant private should be finalized next week. The company states that all required regulatory "green lights" are in place. The last hurdle, approval from the European Commission, was secured about a week ago.

The new investor group:

• Public Investment Fund (PIF) – Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund
• Silver Lake – the U.S. private equity firm specializing in tech
• Affinity Partners – the investment firm founded by Jared Kushner

Once the deal closes, EA will go private: no more public quarterly reports, no more guidance, no more traditional Wall Street pressure.

What this means in practice

We're not fans of the chorus "the funds will ruin EA" – the company has done a fine job of that on its own in recent years. What interests us is what $55 billion in debt and equity will demand in terms of return on investment. A leveraged buyout of this scale isn't repaid with lukewarm The Sims remakes: it mechanically pushes toward more live-service monetization, less creative experimentation, and likely asset divestitures within 3–5 years (studios, dormant IPs).

The Saudi factor deserves to be addressed without hysteria but also without naivety. The PIF already holds significant stakes in Nintendo, Take-Two, Capcom, and Nexon, and acquired ESL Gaming and FACEIT in January 2022 via its subsidiary Savvy Games Group. With EA, Saudi Arabia consolidates the largest gaming position of any sovereign investor in the world. For EA studios based in North America and Europe, the question of creative latitude on sensitive topics (LGBTQ+, political representation, Middle East content) will arise – even if no official framework has been announced yet.

The competition and what we're watching

Take-Two remains public and has just reconfirmed GTA 6 "on schedule." Ubisoft continues its painful restructuring. Activision-Blizzard is already under Microsoft's umbrella. The result: EA becomes the last major Western AAA publisher to go private, and the first under majority control of a sovereign fund.

Key takeaways

Note: n/a (news item, not a test). One-liner: the closing next week, then radio silence on earnings – we'll track what this means for the 2027–2028 release slate. For whom: EA gamers (FIFA/EA Sports FC, Battlefield, The Sims, Apex, Mass Effect) who want to know what governance they'll be served under.