Saudi Arabia & Different Buyers Nearing $50 Billion Deal To Purchase EA

A brand new report claims that Digital Arts is near finalizing a deal to go fully non-public through a $50 billion buyout being put collectively by a bunch of traders that features a number of private-equity corporations in addition to Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund (PIF). The deal could possibly be unveiled as quickly as subsequent week.

On September 26, The Wall Street Journal reported that large online game writer EA, the corporate behind in style and profitable annual sports activities video games like Madden, was at present negotiating a cope with numerous non-public fairness corporations, together with Silver Lake, that could possibly be price practically $50 billion, in accordance with sources that spoke with the outlet.  The teams concerned within the deal embody the controversial Saudi Arabia Public Funding Fund, which has invested a lot of money in the video game industry over the last few years.

Kotaku has contacted EA in regards to the reported deal.

Replace: 9/26/2025: 5:30 p.m. EST: CNBC reports that among the many traders is Affinity Companions. Notably, that is an funding firm based in 2021 by Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. Kushner’s firm relies heavily on money from Saudi Arabia. Authentic story continues beneath.

The Wall Avenue Journal’s report claims that the deal remains to be being negotiated and discussions over worth are nonetheless ongoing, however sources say EA could possibly be valued at $50 billion. The outlet claims this might doubtless be the biggest leveraged buyout of an organization in historical past. Beforehand, the biggest comparable deal occurred in 2007 when a bunch of private-equity corporations spent $32 billion on shopping for up Texas utility firm TXU. This new reported deal, which has not but been formally introduced by EA or any events concerned, can be practically twice as large, in the event you don’t think about inflation.

If this all goes by way of, it’s only one extra (very) large online game deal that the Saudi Arabia Public Funding Fund has made in recent times as a part of the nation’s authorities, making an attempt to “sportswash” or, on this case, “gamewash” its abysmal human rights repute and the truth that the nation remains to be dominated by a literal monarch. Lately, the PIF has invested billions throughout a number of gaming corporations, together with Activision, Blizzard,  Nintendo, Capcom, and Nexon. It additionally fully owns King of Fighters and Metallic Slug writer SNK Corp, which reportedly led to the devs being pressured so as to add well-known soccer participant Cristiano Ronaldo to the combating sport Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves earlier this year.

The PIF is run by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and these investments are a part of the Saudi Imaginative and prescient 2030 technique established throughout Salman’s mid-decade rise to energy. Whereas the plan is introduced as a manner for the nation to diversify its oil-centric economic system, the truth is way completely different. Here’s what former Kotaku writer Ian Walker wrote about Salman, the PIF, and Saudi Arabia’s plan in 2022:

In actuality, nonetheless, Saudi Imaginative and prescient 2030 is essentially a propaganda campaign centered on whitewashing Saudi Arabia’s atrocious human rights record. The regressive monarchy seemingly hopes that aligning itself with entertainment industries around the globe may loosen the purse strings of companies cautious of investing within the oil-rich nation’s economic system, particularly with the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the ongoing, U.S.-backed Yemeni genocide nonetheless looming overhead.

So yeah, whereas it’d sound good that EA reportedly received’t reply to stockholders within the close to future, the writer’s potential new house owners and traders are a lot, a lot worse than some annoying dudes in fits yelling in regards to the quantity not going up quick sufficient.