The buyout of Electronic Arts is now complete, and it looks as if some serious decisions are now going to have to be made just to cover interest debt payments. The deal, reportedly said to be worth $18 billion, is said to have incurred a roughly $1.8 billion annual interest payment from EA. As scary as that number may be to some, there’s still more to consider, as Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has concluded that EA’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) are around $1.5 billion, meaning there’s still more needed to meet the annual debt payment. So where to get the missing funds from? Well, layoffs, of course.
EA’s annual Ebitda is around $1.5 billion, which should be enough to service the interest payments. But the publisher has told debt investors that it will cut $700 million in annual costs including $170 million in “organizational efficiencies,” per Bloomberg. In other words: mass layoffs
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier.bsky.social) August 4, 2026 at 6:34 PM
Sadly, it is a sort of water-is-wet moment since many already expected a similar scenario to play out. The only real difference here is that rather than getting the usual corpo speak from those making the purchase stating it’s the beginning of a new era for gamers with better value, only to be followed by layoffs, it looks as if EA will be the one to make this move on its own. Meanwhile, as reported by VGC, EA has already been cutting staff, around 300-400, which included 100 at Respawn Entertainment. In addition, staff who worked on Battlefield 6 and a now-canceled Titanfall project- Criterion, Motive, Ripple Effect, and Dice were let go. It’s probably an understatement to say that any remaining staff at EA are now thinking heavily about their future employment status with the publisher. However, AI overlords are likely safe from any loss and poised to make epic profits for their new stakeholders.
Discussion (10 replies)
Join Discussion →Needs a little context here... EA was purchased by Silver Lake (Saudi investment firm spending current oil money to diversify their investment portfolio's.) and Affinity Partners (Jared Kushner aka trump baby).
They buyout was for some 55 billion in a leveraged buyout to take EA public.
What's going to happen now largely depends on if Silver Lake can sever the Kushner effect or did it correctly and avoid bankrupting/folding EA in the next 5 years.
Because this man is following the lead of someone who managed to bankrupt a CASINO.... A EFFING CASINO?!
I love how the new vulture capital trick is to somehow buy a company, and make that company swallow all the debt you just bought them out with, then suck all the marrow from the bone and bankrupt the thing billions of dollars in debt. Somehow that simultaneously nets huge profits for the new owner while shoving it straight up the pooper for any debt holder after they finally put a bullet in the head of old Spot and throw him in a hole in the field.
It's the classic pump and dump...
Would the world be better off without EA?
I get the rest of the process... This part is the one I do not understand, youd think this would happen
.... Ever so rarely, since who wants to eat a bunch of debt like this... But its almost like this is the system of wealth and power transfer, banks are just there to print the money in this casino.... Ahaha i said almost.
Once upon a time they had some redeeming qualities, but I think they have been soulless since long before this buyout.
Yes.
The ruined some great franchises over the years. I wont ever forgive them.
Yes, them going away affects nothing, and no one but I only mean customer wise.
Likely better things will.come.
Not to speak of people being laid off, thats not good.
I bet they will do their crypto ai driven, gambling addiction triggering crap and will survive on this for some, perhaps a long time.
The type.of games one questions who.would buy it, yet, billions.
If all they keep doing is updating rosters on FIFA and Madden they can keep going for a long time still. But I’m betting they screw that up somehow