One of the biggest stories of the year is that a consortium of 3 companies is currently in the process of buying EA, a deal that is currently expected to be finalised in 2027 and will be worth
The three companies in question are Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, alongside US-based investment firms Silver Lake and Affinity Partners. Should the deal go through, it will be the largest leveraged deal in history.
But while we knew who the three companies were, we didn’t know what sort of stakes each one had in the buyout. Well, based on a new report by the Wall Street Journal (paywalled), now we do.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a filing in Brazil’s antitrust regulator shows that the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) will apparently own 93.4% of EA. Silver Lake will get 5.5%, and Affinity just 1.1%.
In total, the three companies are laying down $36.4 billion in equity, and then borrowing another $20 billion, which is going to be classified as debt held by EA, raising its debt from its current $2.2 billion to over $22.2 billion. So I guess those microtransaction prices are going to go up, then?
It’s worth noting that the PIF is actually an investor in both Affinity and SIlver Lake, so there’s a lot of financial risk here. And that’s somewhat surprising, because despite the incredibly deep pockets of the PIF, it’s actually a little strained at the moment thanks to numerous big projects.
Of course, the news of the buyout has not exactly gone down well with people. EA doesn’t have a sterling reputation – although it has got a little better over the years – to begin with, so being bought out by a country with an even less stellar reputation hasn’t been received with joy. There are fears that Saudi Arabia may begin imposing its own morals on what EA puts out, though from what I can tell they haven’t done this with any other things they’ve invested in or bought outside of the Kingdom. I may be very wrong on that, though.
