EA Is Reportedly Closing In On a Deal to Go Private In a Massive $50 Billion Buyout
A report from The Wall Street Journal reveals that EA is closing in on a deal to become a private company, with private equity investors including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the firm Silver Lake putting up a massive $50 billion to buy out the company. According to The WSJ, if this buyout were to go through, it would go down as the “largest leveraged buyout ever.”
Details on the deal are currently unclear, and of course, we don’t necessarily know if it’ll go through or not. Large-stakes deals involving Saudi Arabia and its growing interests in the videogame industry have gone under at the last minute for what remain unknown reasons.
It’s also not the first time that we’ve seen the idea of EA changing in ownership getting tossed around, as there were reports of Disney potentially looking at acquiring EA in 2023, though nothing ever came of the idea in part due to chief executive officer Bob Iger not wanting to invest so much in that direction.
Still, if this deal that the WSJ has reported goes through and EA becomes a private company, it could potentially mean a massive shift for one of the videogame industry’s largest publishers and developers. Since the WSJ’s report broke, EA’s stock has reportedly jumped up 15%.
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