The largest leveraged buyout in history has closed. Electronic Arts is now private. A group led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund bought it for $55bn, alongside Silver Lake and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners. The maker of The Sims, Battlefield and EA Sports FC comes with roughly $20bn of new debt attached.
The paperwork is finished. Shareholders get $210 per share, and EA’s stock has stopped trading and left the NASDAQ. EA announced the deal last September, and it cleared its last hurdles weeks ago. PIF now owns about 93% of the company. Chief executive Andrew Wilson stays on. He also named two new presidents, telling staff that Cam Weber will lead studios and David Tinson operations.
The debt question
What makes this a business story rather than a gaming one is the borrowing. PIF put in about $36bn. It borrowed another $20bn from JPMorgan, and EA carries the debt. By one estimate, the company’s debt load jumped roughly tenfold. EA now has to service that bill.
Analysts expect the money to reshape what EA makes. “I don’t know how EA is going to service this debt without significant layoffs, studio closures, and possibly IP sell-off,” F-Squared’s Michael Futter told CNBC. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier predicted more aggressive monetization. The likely path is to lean harder on safe, familiar franchises.
