Electronic Arts to go private in record $55B deal

COLMA, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 29: An Electronic Arts video game is displayed at a Target store on September 29, 2025 in Colma, California. Video game maker Electronic Arts is being acquired in a $55 billion deal with private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, Affinity Partners, and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF. The deal could become the largest private equity-funded buyout in history.

The deal will be the largest buyout of a publicly traded company in history

(Image credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

What happened

Electronic Arts, the video game giant behind “The Sims” and “Madden NFL,” announced Monday that it had agreed to be acquired by investors including Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners and private equity firm Silver Lake. The $55 billion deal would be the largest buyout of a publicly traded company in history.

Who said what

EA is a “sports-gaming juggernaut,” The New York Times said, and the deal is the Saudi fund’s latest effort to “advance into gaming” and sports “as it looks to diversify its investments away from oil.” The buyout will be financed by a “staggering” $20 billion of debt, Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier said on social media. The likely result will be “some *aggressive* cost cutting,” including “mass layoffs” and “more aggressive monetization.”

Shareholders in EA, which has been publicly traded since 1990, would get $210 per share in cash under the deal, a 25% premium over the company’s stock price before investors caught wind of the buyout. Amid “strong buzz” about the upcoming release of “Battlefield 6,” The Wall Street Journal said, EA looks to be “getting out while the getting is good.”

What next?

The Saudi involvement means the deal needs approval from national security regulators on the Committee on Foreign Investment, “but there are plenty of reasons to expect it will go through,” The Associated Press said. Along with Kushner being President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, “the president could also be inclined to look favorably on any Saudi investment because he has benefited directly from their spending.”

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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.