Electronic Arts Inc., one of the world’s largest video game developers, today agreed to go private in a deal that is set to value it at $55 billion.
The consortium that is buying the company includes Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake Partners and Affinity Partners, an investment firm led by Jared Kushner. Electronic Arts investors will receive $210 per share in cash. That represents a 25% premium to the company’s last unaffected closing price on Thursday.
“The future for EA is bright, we are going to invest heavily to grow the business,” said Silver Lake co-Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner Egon Durban.
Electronic Arts launched in 1982 and released its first batch of games for the Atari 800, an early computer with 48 kilobytes of RAM, the following year. Today, the company generates more than $7 billion in annual revenue. It operates more than than a dozen video game studios that develop titles across multiple genres.
One of Electronic Arts’ main focus areas is the sports game category. The company established a presence in that market during the late 1980s with a football game called “John Madden Football.” The game has since turned into a more than 40-title series, “Madden NFL,” that Electronic Arts most recently expanded in August.
The company’s sports game business was one of the bright spots in its most recent earnings report. In July, CEO Andrew Wilson told investors that Electronics Arts’ football games “continued to demonstrate strength with sustained engagement” last quarter. He added that the “Global Football” soccer game portfolio achieved faster revenue growth than the company as a whole.
Electronic Arts generates more than three quarters its revenue from so-called live services. That’s an umbrella term for in-game items, subscriptions and related offerings. The rest of Electronic Arts’ revenue comes from upfront game purchases.
The company generated $1.67 billion in sales last quarter, which represents a year-over-year increase of under 1%. Its core live services business declined slightly.
The consortium that is buying Electronics Arts plans to finance the acquisition with an equity investment worth about $36 billion. That sum will include cash contributions from PIF, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners along with a roll-over of PIF’s existing 9.9% stake in the video game maker. JPMorgan Chase Bank NA will provide $20 billion in debt financing.
The acquisition ranks as the largest private equity buyout on record. Andrew Wilson will continue to lead Electronic Arts as CEO after the deal’s completion in the first quarter of 2026.
Photo: King of Hearts/Wikimedia
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