News Summary

• EA announce deal with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners.
• The consortium will buy 100% of EA and take it private, with the PIF rolling in their existing 9.9% stake in the publisher.
• The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, once it has been granted the usual regulatory approvals and voted through by EA's shareholders.
• EA have put out a press release featuring various hyperbolic remarks from the likes of EA CEO Andrew Wilson, who will stay on in his position.
• The press release doesn't, as you're probably expecting, discuss how this might affect ordinary EA employees and subsidiary developers.
• If the deal does happen, it will mean that BioWare, Criterion Games, DICE, Motive Studio, and Respawn Entertainment are now partly overseen by the investment arm of a state that oppresses women and queer people.
• The PIF were rumoured to be discussing a $2 billion investment deal via their subsidiary Savvy Games with the infamously acquisition-happy Embracer Group some years ago.
• These talks reportedly fell through in May 2023, triggering a brutal period of mass layoffs and cancellations.