EA Is Now Officially Privately Owned (gamedeveloper.com)
- Reference: 0184857464
- News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/08/04/228200/ea-is-now-officially-privately-owned
- Source link: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/ea-is-now-owned-by-saudi-arabia-and-donald-trump-s-son-in-law
> EA Sports FC and Battlefield publisher EA has been [2]taken private by an investor consortium led by Saudi Arabia's sovereign Public Investment Fund (PIF). The move means the U.S. juggernaut is no longer a publicly-traded entity and is now majority owned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through its PIF investment arm. Other investors include Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, the latter of which was established by U.S. president Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
>
> The [3]$55 billion transaction was financed via a combination of cash from PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners as well as roll-over of PIF's existing stake in EA -- constituting an equity investment of approximately $36 billion. Notably, $20 billion of debt financing was provided by JPMorgan Chase Bank. The deal cleared the necessary regulatory hurdles in July, paving the way for its completion at the close of trading [4]on August 4, 2026 . It was approved by regulators in major markets such as the European Union and the United States without incident, despite lawmakers and union leaders in the U.S. calling on the Federal Trade Commission to [5]heavily scrutinize the leveraged buyout over geopolitical and employment concerns.
[1] https://slashdot.org/~neoRUR
[2] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260804173096/en/EA-Announces-Completion-of-Acquisition-by-PIF-Silver-Lake-and-Affinity-Partners
[3] https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/09/26/1849227/electronic-arts-nears-roughly-50-billion-deal-to-go-private
[4] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260804173096/en/EA-Announces-Completion-of-Acquisition-by-PIF-Silver-Lake-and-Affinity-Partners
[5] https://games.slashdot.org/story/25/10/16/2145217/video-game-union-workers-rally-against-55-billion-saudi-backed-private-acquisition-of-ea
"EA Ruins Things"... (Score:4, Insightful)
Now complete with garbage misogyny, antisemitic genocidal nutbaggery, and the rest of the horrible baggage of the Saudi Terrorist Crime Family.
Re: (Score:2)
> Now complete with garbage misogyny, antisemitic genocidal nutbaggery, and the rest of the horrible baggage of the Saudi Terrorist Crime Family.
Ya, but then the Trump family connection ... never mind. :-)
Wow (Score:2)
I didn't think EA could get any worse.
old news (Score:1)
[1]https://external-content.duckd... [duckduckgo.com]
[1] https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fb722o4of1p501.png&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=a648169eed1a2f6676ce9acaa79d63057016be9816f2266c141d159ebd2944fe
Poor Employees (Score:1)
The Company I work for is owed by Private equity.. I feel bad for the employees, big cuts are coming.
EA is a Dead Man walking (Score:5, Insightful)
They don't 20 billion dollars of leveraged buyout debt on them. If you think EA sucks now you haven't seen anything yet. They have to get out from under that debt and the only way they can think of to do that is to abuse their employees and their customers. They are already abusing the employees pretty much as much as a legally can.
I expect they will start outsourcing things to foreign countries with cheap labor that they frankly can't really do because it's going to create weird cultural problems to do so. On top of that they have already started trying to add even nastier microtransactions in. And this is EA we are talking about.
I feel bad for anyone who's into their sports games because they're going to basically collapse but because of monopolies you're still going to be stuck with them. So if that was your hobby then it's basically going to go to shit and there's nothing you can do about it.
Once again this is one of those cases where antitrust law enforcement would have protected your hobby. People sometimes complain because I'm bringing politics into a hobbyist discussion but whether you like it or not politics is going to intrude on your life you don't get to stick your head in the sand anymore...
Re: EA is a Dead Man walking (Score:2)
> Once again this is one of those cases where antitrust law enforcement would have protected your hobby.
Antitrust?
Is EA a monopoly?
Is changing owners really that nefarious?
Seems like a real over-reaction, what pretext is there for the DOJ to try and block a private sale of EA to a consortium that includes an investor (Saudi Sovereign fund) that had $20BN invested?
Re: (Score:2)
Changing owners is neither here nor there... but the leveraged buyout is pretty nefarious and will likely kill the company.
Tainted goods. (Score:2)
> Other investors include Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, the latter of which was established by U.S. president Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
So now the whole company and any of its franchises are permanently tainted.
Re: (Score:2)
> So now the whole company and any of its franchises are permanently tainted.
Now? EA could already lick my taint.
Meh... (Score:2)
A hacker already stole my main EA account, and they don't seem to be bothered about fixing it, so... (Goodbye SWGOH.)
that was electronic arts (Score:1)
[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
that was electronic arts
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE3Yg6RAb3I
Re: (Score:1)
no, no one in ussr had adlib
so [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
pc speaker all the way.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m42ZP2o2Wg
If we use madoka magica analogy (Score:2)
A private company is like a girl with a wish, trying to accomplish it on it's own
A public company is a girl that fell for the talk of kyubey and will sooner or later turn into a witch, and whatever EA is, is not back to a girl, but a demon
Great (Score:5, Insightful)
Another, and even better, reason to never touch anything produced or published by EA ever again. Fuck the Saudis.
Re: (Score:1)
in the end it's the same. Some idiots with cash juggle trinkets not understanding that those mean nothing
Re: (Score:3)
If your hobby is sports and sports video games then I don't know what to tell you. I feel really bad for those folks. If that's what takes the edge off from your daily life it's about to get a lot shittier and it was already pretty shitty.
Re: (Score:1)
EA Sports Big was their golden era. I'm happy to just keep playing those games.
Re: (Score:2)
Really, why is my day about to get "even shitter"?
Re: (Score:3)
Yeah, I was thinking "We can stick it to KSA and Jared Kushner at the same time, just by not buying EA games? Where do I sign up?"
Re: (Score:2)
Does this mean I can't use Deluxe Paint III on my Amiga any more? *sighs* OK then!