An investor consortiumamong which are the sovereign fund of Saudi Arabia, and the investors Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, You will Buy Electronic Arts for 55,000 million dollars. There is the peculiarity that this last investment is directed by its founder, Jared Kushner, son -in -law of Donald Trump. Investors will make the company private when the operation is closed, which is expected to happen during its first tax quarter 2027.
The agreement still has to be approved by the current Electronic Arts shareholders, as well as by the regulatory authorities. If you get them, the agreement will be one of the biggest purchases of a company that quotes in the stock market. At the moment, it already has the approval of the Board of Directors of Electronic Arts, and each shareholder will receive 201 dollars in cash for each action of the company.
The transaction will be financed through a combination of cash contributed by each of the members of the buyer group (the Saudi Sovereign Fund already has the company’s actions). When the operation ends, an investment in shares of about 36,000 million will have been paid, while the other 20,000 million, committed by the JP Morgan Chase bank, will be debt financing.
Each of the group’s investors plans to finance the part of shares mentioned with capital that each has under their control. When the transaction ends, Electronic Artis will continue to have its headquarters in Redwood City (California) and will continue to have Andrew Wilson as CEO.
The sovereign fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF), which currently has 9.9% of the electronic arts shares and also has invested money in Affinity Partners, also has investments in other playgrounds, such as Nintendo or Capcom.
As has happened with other video game companies in recent months, the Electronic Arts business has gone through certain problems in recent months, which have led the company to cancel launches and video game developments, in addition to saying goodbye to a part of the workforce.
Given the purchase, the Electronic Arts CEO has stressed that «Our creative and passionate EA teams have provided extraordinary experiences to hundreds of millions of fans, have created some of the most emblematic intellectual properties in the world and have contributed significant value to our business. This moment involves great recognition of his extraordinary work. Looking ahead, we will continue to expand the limits of entertainment, sports and technology, opening new opportunities. Together with our partners, we will create transformative experiences that will inspire the coming generations. I am more excited than ever with the future we are building«.
