Consortium buys Electronic Arts for 55 billion US dollars
The games publisher Electronic Arts is being bought by a consortium in which the Saudi sovereign wealth fund has a stake. The deal costs 55 billion US dollars.
(Image: Shutterstock.com/ Michael Vi)
The US games publisher Electronic Arts is being acquired and delisted from the stock exchange. This was announced by EA together with the consortium of buyers on Monday afternoon. According to the announcement, the costs are 55 billion US dollars.
The buyers are the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund (Public Investment Fund, PIF) and the investment firms Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, which was founded by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The transaction is expected to be finalized at the beginning of the 2027 fiscal year, the companies announced.
Electronic Arts will be privatized as part of the leveraged buyout. The US publisher behind the football series “EA FC” (formerly “FIFA”) will remain based in Redwood. CEO Andrew Wilson will also remain in office, the companies announced. The companies left open whether this job guarantee also applies to the employees.
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Just a few months ago, EA cancelled a “Black Panther” game and laid off employees. Previously, EA had removed employees from traditional studios such as Bioware to work on the financially successful sports simulations in its portfolio.
The deal could become the second largest takeover in the history of the games industry after Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard for USD 69 billion.
(dahe)
