An announcement could come as early as this week.
EA is reportedly in the final stages of a $50 billion USD deal to go private, The Wall Street Journal has reported over the weekend.
According to the outlet, an investor group that includes Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), private equity firm Silver Lake, and the Jared Kushner-led Affinity Partners is preparing to buyout current investors to remove the company from the stock exchange. At $50 billion USD, it would be the largest leveraged buyout in history when adjusted for inflation.
EA’s market value was approximately $3 billion USD before Wall Street Journal’s reporting; it jumped by close to 15% to approximately $45 billion USD following the report.
PIF has a number of video game-related investments already, including a 10% stake in EA, a 5.01% stake in Nintendo, and co-owns Scopely, the publisher of mobile titles including Pokemon Go and Star Trek Fleet Command. Silver Lake has partial ownership of game engine Unity.
EA has just released titles including NHL 26, EA Sports FC 26, and Skate, and will release Battlefield 6 next month.
We’ll report back as more is known.
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