EA is in talks to be acquired and taken private by a group of US and Saudi Arabian investors, according to reports.
Both The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg claim that a $50bn deal could be announced as soon as next week.
The group mounting the takeover includes Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and US-based private equity firms Silver Lake Management and Affinity Partners, the latter of which is run by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
Both The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg warned the negotiations are not finalised, so the deal could yet fall through. EA’s share price leapt around 15% when the news broke yesterday, pushing the firm’s market cap up to around $48bn.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund already owns roughly 10% of EA through the public markets, and is the entity funding Savvy Games Group, which acquired Monopoly Go maker Scopely for $4.9bn in 2023. More recently, Scopely bought out Niantic’s games division for $3.5bn, including its crown jewel, Pokémon Go. Savvy Games Group also holds a 6.5% stake in Zynga owner Take-Two.
US private equity firm Silver Lake holds stakes in Unity, and recently took UFC and WWE owner Endeavour private.
Affinity Partners, meanwhile, appears to be largely reliant on cash from Saudi Arabia’s PIF, and has yet to make any investments in the games space.
If the deal goes through, it’d be one of the largest buyouts in game industry history, almost as big as Microsoft’s $69bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which included Candy Crush maker King.
