{"id":598,"date":"2026-07-31T00:00:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/?p=598"},"modified":"2026-07-31T00:00:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:00:49","slug":"ea-says-saudi-takeover-deal-is-set-to-close-next-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/?p=598","title":{"rendered":"EA Says Saudi Takeover Deal Is Set To Close Next Week"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Electronic Arts will become a private company again very soon, with the gaming giant set to be acquired by an investors&#8217; group led by the Saudi Arabian government. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As <a href=\"https:\/\/d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net\/CIK-0000712515\/794ae72c-0dde-4a1b-b8e5-27c35e281317.pdf\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net\/CIK-0000712515\/794ae72c-0dde-4a1b-b8e5-27c35e281317.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">revealed in today&#8217;s SEC filing<\/a>, &#8220;all regulatory approvals required to complete the Merger have been obtained. Electronic Arts currently expects the Merger to close on or about the close of trading on August 4, 2026.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The news comes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/ea-sale-to-saudi-arabia-clears-a-major-hurdle\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/ea-sale-to-saudi-arabia-clears-a-major-hurdle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">just after the deal was approved by the European Union<\/a>. The $55 billion deal is among the biggest ever seen in the gaming industry and will see EA&#8211;which has long been a publicly traded company&#8211;be taken private. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Alongside Saudi Arabia, which is involved in the deal through its controversial Public Investment Fund, the other partners are private-equity firm Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, which was founded by Donald Trump&#8217;s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The buyout comes during a particularly tumultuous time for EA, which has seen several mass layoffs and canceled projects in recent years. Much of its resources have been funneled into a few key franchises, particularly Battlefield. Critics remain concerned that the Saudi government&#8217;s involvement could influence the themes and values present in EA&#8217;s games, perhaps most prominently in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/sims-team-says-values-are-unchanged-ahead-of-potential-saudi-ea-deal\/1100-6537303\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/sims-team-says-values-are-unchanged-ahead-of-potential-saudi-ea-deal\/1100-6537303\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Sims series<\/a>, but that remains to be seen. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most recently, EA CEO Andrew Wilson was given a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/ea-ceo-got-a-huge-pay-increase-while-company-laid-off-devs\/?_thumbnail_id=1439681\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/ea-ceo-got-a-huge-pay-increase-while-company-laid-off-devs\/?_thumbnail_id=1439681\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">massive pay increase<\/a> despite laying off many of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/ea-employees-slam-55-billion-buyout-in-open-letter\/1100-6535484\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/ea-employees-slam-55-billion-buyout-in-open-letter\/1100-6535484\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">people responsible<\/a> for his company&#8217;s successful games. The deal will also saddle the newly private company with a tremendous amount of debt, and it&#8217;s unclear how that will be addressed. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Electronic Arts will become a private company again very soon, with the gaming giant set to be acquired by an investors&#8217; group led by the Saudi Arabian government. As revealed in today&#8217;s SEC filing, &#8220;all regulatory approvals required to complete the Merger have been obtained. Electronic Arts currently expects the Merger to close on or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gaming","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aimoneylab.ai\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}