Electronic Arts to be taken private in fifty five billion dollar deal led by Kushner and Saudi fund

Electronic Arts, the renowned video games publisher behind the Fifa and EA Sports FC football series as well as The Sims, is set to leave the Nasdaq in a landmark fifty five billion dollar acquisition. The deal, orchestrated by an investor consortium headed by Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, and US private equity house Silver Lake, will become the largest leveraged buyout on record.

Shareholders in the California based games company are poised to receive two hundred and ten dollars per share in cash, representing a twenty five percent premium to the closing price last Thursday. News of the buyout pushed EA shares up by four and a half percent to two hundred and two dollars and five cents after the announcement was made public.

Kushner, whose Affinity Partners spearheaded the move alongside the Saudi sovereign wealth fund and Silver Lake, described Electronic Arts as “an extraordinary company with a world class management team”. He remarked on his admiration for EA’s creation of iconic and enduring games, stating his excitement about the new chapter for the business he enjoyed growing up and now plays with his children.

Funding for the deal will come from cash reserves supplied by the consortium’s members, the Saudi fund’s existing nine point nine percent stake in EA—valued at roughly thirty six billion dollars—and a substantial twenty billion dollar loan from JP Morgan. These combined forces will delist EA, best known globally for its EA Sports division and The Sims life simulation franchise, from the New York stock exchange.

Andrew Wilson, chief executive at EA, affirmed he would remain at the company’s helm. In a note to staff, Wilson characterised the takeover as “one of the largest and most significant investments ever made in the entertainment industry”, praising the incoming partners’ experience across gaming, sport, and entertainment sectors. The leadership team’s strategy remains unchanged as they look to the company’s future as a privately held operation.

The transaction underscores the buoyancy and strategic significance of the video games market, as influential global investors target household names for transformative deals. With the completion of this buyout, Electronic Arts will open a fresh chapter in one of the most notable sagas in entertainment business history.