Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in $52.5 Billion Deal Backed by Saudi Fund and Jared Kushner’s Firm
Video game giant Electronic Arts — the maker of Madden NFL , Battlefield , and The Sims — is set to be acquired for $52.5 billion in what could become the largest private equity-funded buyout in history. Silver Lake…
Video game giant Electronic Arts — the maker of Madden NFL, Battlefield, and The Sims — is set to be acquired for $52.5 billion in what could become the largest private equity-funded buyout in history.
Silver Lake Partners, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund (PIF), and Affinity Partners — led by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — will pay shareholders $210 per share. Including EA’s debt, the deal is valued at $55 billion, far surpassing the $32 billion leveraged buyout of Texas utility TXU in 2007, according to The Associated Press.
PIF, already EA’s largest insider stakeholder with 9.9%, will roll over its existing investment. Analyst Andrew Marok of Raymond James said the deal fits Saudi Arabia’s growing push into gaming.
“The Saudi PIF has been a very active player in the video gaming market since 2022, taking minority stakes in most scaled public video gaming publishers, and also outright purchases of companies like ESL, FACEIT, and Scopely,” Marok wrote. “The PIF has made its intentions to scale its gaming arm, Savvy Gaming Group, clear, and the