This week Electronic Arts (EA) shareholders approved the company going private, in a deal valued at $55 billion USD and led by the Saudi Arabian government’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF).
The deal, announced at the end of September, would see EA become a private company through an investor consortium that includes the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners. Under the terms of this transaction EA stockholders will receive $210 per share in cash based on the unaffected share price of $168.32 at market close on Sept. 25, 2025, the last fully unaffected trading day.
EA’s current catalog as it pertains to esports includes Battlefield, Apex Legends, Madden, and EA Sports FC, among others.
The transaction was already approved by EA’s Board of Directors when it was announced, with an estimated close in Q1 FY27, assuming the company can get the required regulatory approval from various government antitrust regulators around the world. Should the investor consortium fail to obtain the regulatory approvals or choose to back out of the deal, it will pay EA a termination fee of $1 billion; likewise, if EA opts to take another deal or terminate this agreement, it will owe the consortium $1 billion.
The PIF is the sovereign wealth fund of the Saudi Arabian government, while Miami-based Affinity Partners was launched in 2021 by Jared Kushner, a former senior advisor to President Donald Trump in his first-term and his son-in-law. Silver Lake is a U.S.-based investment firm that has investments in such companies as Unity Technologies, Twitter/X, AMC, Jio, Motorola, Dell, Endeavor, and Broadcom, among others. In addition to buying into EA through this deal, PIF already owns a part of both investment groups.
In addition to having minority stakes in a number of major game makers, the PIF owns gaming and esports firm Savvy Games Group and also owns Evolution Championship Series organizer RTS through its city project Qiddiya. The fund also has minor stakes in some of the biggest publishers in the world including Nintendo and Activision Blizzard, and owns 100% of Japanese fighting games maker SNK Corporation. Savvy Games Group is also home to the ESL FACEIT Group, which includes tournament organizer ESL, esports platform FACEIT, gaming and esports festival organizer DreamHack, and UK and U.S.-based esports production firm Esports Engine.
Properties owned or tied to the Saudi Arabian government are frequently accused of helping the government engage in so-called “sports washing,” or using various forms of sport and entertainment to cover up its record on human rights, women’s rights, LGTBQ+ rights, military actions in Yemen, and more. These and other criticisms are actively highlighted by international watchdog groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.