Sounds Like Saudi Arabia Will Own Almost All of EA After Buyout

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Electronic Arts (EA) is being bought by a group of investors that includes the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, as well as the American investment companies Silver Lake and Affinity Partners. This news has already been reported.

A new report from the Wall Street Journal details the financial contributions to the deal. Once completed, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) will own 93.4% of the publisher. Silver Lake will hold a 5.5% stake, and Affinity Partners will own 1.1%.

This deal would effectively make the Public Investment Fund the main owner of the company, which is currently worth $55 billion.

Okay, so here’s the deal: this group is spending a huge amount of money – $36.4 billion from investors, plus they’re borrowing the rest – to buy out the company behind games like Mass Effect and Madden. That’s about $20 billion in debt they’re taking on. And it gets even weirder – the Public Investment Fund (PIF) already had stakes in the companies that helped fund this whole thing, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners. It’s a bit of a complicated financial play, honestly!

Even though the Public Investment Fund (PIF) is known for its vast wealth, it’s currently facing financial strain. This is likely due to its significant investments in ambitious and costly projects, such as the planned city of Neom and the construction of numerous stadiums for the 2034 World Cup.

Despite having hundreds of billions of dollars in overseas investments, this isn’t good news for Electronic Arts (EA). They will likely be responsible for a significant amount of debt as part of the acquisition.

The publisher will likely focus heavily on its most popular brands while also trying to reduce expenses and boost earnings.

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2025-12-03 09:36