It’s the end of an era as EA has officially confirmed that it will be sold in a deal worth $55 billion, and the new owners are reportedly already planning big changes. News broke last week that the buyout might be announced this week, and EA wasted no time in making the announcement yesterday. Electronic Arts Chairman and CEO Andrew Wilson shared his excitement regarding the deal, which sees Saudi Arabia’s PIF (who already owns ~10%), Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners take ownership, in the following statement.
“Our creative and passionate teams at EA have delivered extraordinary experiences for hundreds of millions of fans, built some of the world’s most iconic IP, and created significant value for our business. This moment is a powerful recognition of their remarkable work, Looking ahead, we will continue to push the boundaries of entertainment, sports, and technology, unlocking new opportunities. Together with our partners, we will create transformative experiences to inspire generations to come. I am more energized than ever about the future we are building.”
– Andrew Wilson, EA Chairman & CEO
The deal is set to close in Q1 F27 pending regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, at which point the company will officially go private. PIF will rollover its stake into the agreement, whereby 100% of EA will be bought out. EA shareholders will receive $210 per share, representing a 25% premium of the 9/25/2025 share price of $168.32. JP Morgan is providing $20 billion in financing, with $18 due at completion of the buyout. EA is said to retain its Redwood, CA headquarters with Andrew Wilson continuing to helm the company.
“The transaction represents the largest all-cash sponsor take-private investment in history, with the Consortium partnering closely with EA to enable the Company to move faster and unlock new opportunities on a global stage.”
– EA
AI Rising
Nearly as fast as Electronic Arts published its press release, a report by The Financial Times revealed another forthcoming detail. Evidently, EA’s new owners already have a strategy in place on how to reduce operating costs, namely by using AI. Per the report, AI will be used to “boost EA’s profits in the coming years” and “to manage a large debt load on a company that historically carried limited net debt.”
What this exactly means remains unknown, but one possibility exists that AI could be heavily leaned upon for game development. Doing so could potentially reduce costs drastically by not having to pay human developers and/or actors, something many in the gaming industry have already been expressing concerns over. Meanwhile, EA’s execs are celebrating the deal, and there’s sure to be more news forthcoming regarding the game publisher’s future.
“The Board carefully evaluated this opportunity and concluded it delivers compelling value for stockholders and is in the best interests of all stakeholders,”
-Luis A. Ubiñas, Lead Independent Director of EA’s Board of Directors
Discussion (14 replies)
Join Discussion →And we will continue with our global push to eliminate as many positions as possible, squeeze as many pennies as we can from our fickle 'fan' base, and drip AI in to every mobile app we brand. Truly 'energizing' times as I take my millions buyout and leave the peasants to starve.
And you thought EA was evil...
I mean those were all things a company does before it gets sold. Eliminates financial liabilities all it can to clean up the books to make the purchase more tolerable. Cutting deep in layoffs is again a tradition of share holders/board members that don't care about the people but want to guarantee that cash money buyout. Also I'm sure they ran roughshod over anyone with PTO in the bucket that could roll over from year to year (see California state laws). Take it or be fired sort of roughshod as they can't make it take it or loose it.
Lots of schenanigains but all sadly normal for a company looking for the big purchase payout. I'm sure the board members and others with large numbers of shares were paid out quite handsomely and everyone else was... well...
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A lot of companies are moving away from accrued and rollover PTO to a un"limited" PTO platform. And they're not paying out any accrued or rolled over PTO. They did that to us. We had people with 8+ weeks accrued that just POOF'd.
When you have hundreds or thousands of employees that's a lot of money they can be instantly wipe off the books.
Considering that pto is supposed to be part of compensation it should be against the law. Flip it to unlimited but write that check.
Should, but it's not.
I lost around 8 weeks when our company did this a couple of years ago. I didn't complain too loudly though - they compensate me well enough via other means.
Depends on the wording of your employment contract. Some companies allow employees to cash out PTO thereby assigning a monetary value to it. Most companies don't allow that and assign no monetary value to PTO until it is used.
Oh they do they have to legally account for it as an obligation.
Well the good news here is that EA hasn’t put out anything I’ve been excited about for years now… so no change is expected
For the most part, the same feelings here.
Their jedi series has been pretty solid for two games so far...
Keep meaning to give them a try. I've picked up both for free but still haven't really got around to them.
$55 billion is a lot of money. Gotta cut corners to recoup that investment and get into positive RoI territory! Of course the product will probably suffer, but oh well, too bad.
This will depend...
Cash based accounting? Nope.
Employment policy to not pay out unused balance, assuming no state laws that force it? Nope.
It gets accounted for if there's a future obligation created - like the payout at termination.