Back in September, Electronic Arts (EA) announced that it would be sold to the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia. The videogames publisher has since announced that the acquisition, to the tune of US$55 billion (~RM225 billion), has been completed. It’s now officially a privately owned company, with PIF owning 93.4% of it. The rest is split between Silver Lake (5.5%) and Affinity Partners (1.1%), the latter being notably helmed by the son-in-law of the US President.
While it’s notable for being the largest leveraged buyout in history, and the second largest videogames acquisition second only to Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, EA and PIF seemingly faced little resistance on the regulatory side of things. Shareholders approved of the acquisition in mere months, while the EU gave the green light back in July. Part of the deal does involve US$20 billion (~RM81.82 billion) in debt financing that EA will have to pay off over time.
Despite this, Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson said “we’re entering this next chapter from a position of strength with partners who share our vision and ambition. Together, we’ll invest boldly, accelerate innovation, and build the next generation of games and experiences for the hundreds of millions of players and fans who inspire us every day”.
He also said “this moment recognises the extraordinary people whose creativity, ambition and passion have made EA one of the world’s leading interactive entertainment companies”. This is pretty ironic as the company laid off between 300 and 400 workers between the acquisition announcement and now, as well as downsizing or even closing internal studios. All of this is while Wilson received a total annual compensation of US$38.65 million (~RM155 million) for FY2026. This is a climb of over US$8 million (~RM33 million) over FY2025.
(Source: Business Wire, Bloomberg, US SEC [PDF])
