EA’s shareholders are clearly keen on a buy-out, no matter where the money comes from. The sale, that would see the 43-year-old company become majority owned by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF), could go ahead by the beginning of 2027 pending government approval, now that public investors have voted in favor of the deal. And government approval might not be too tricky, given Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner would also benefit from 1.1 percent of the deal.
The full deal will see EA become a private company, 37 years after it originally went public, with ownership unevenly split between three groups. The vast majority—an enormous 93.4 percent—will be owned by the murderous regime of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman via Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. That will leave 5.5 percent going to Californian private equity firm Silver Lake, and 1.1 percent for Affinity Partners, Jared Kushner’s investment firm that is, well, primarily funded by Saudi Arabia. If completed, it would mean EA stockholders will receive an enormous $210 per share.
While this will make for a nice payday for shareholders (which obviously includes EA management), it will also leave EA saddled with $20 billion in debt from paying off the ludicrously inflated share price, putting its credit rating in the sewers, and it’s hard to see how the company can sustain that. Then, of course, there’s the very significant matter of the company being almost entirely owned by a state that kills people for being gay or trans, murders journalists, and denies women many basic rights. EA employees obviously have good reason to be fearful, no matter how much the PIF may exist to whitewash the country’s actions, and there’s no way of knowing how the ownership might affect everything from basic company policy to what’s included in games.
Given the precarious state in which this deal would leave an impossibly indebted EA, and the likely exodus of both those let go in attempt to combat crippling costs and those who leave in disgust, it seems extremely unlikely EA could survive in any recognizable form. While games like FC26 and Battlefield 6 are huge successes, they’re also massive investments for smaller returns when compared to the mobile slop that makes up more than half of the games industry’s $200 billion value.
The deal will certainly face lengthy scrutiny around the world, just as we saw with Microsoft’s $67 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard King, although it could have a far easier ride in the U.S. While the FTC fought hard against the Microsoft deal, all bets are off under Trump, and Kushner’s involvement could certainly help grease the wheels.
From the shareholders’ perspective, however, EA is a company that’s stalled and lacked for enough big hits in recent years, and hasn’t looked likely to turn things around for a long while. This is an opportunity to get out with a big profit, no matter the human cost, nor the company’s future.
