Electronic Arts Agrees to $55 Billion Buyout During Gaming Slump

Electronic Arts Inc. has agreed to sell itself in the largest leveraged buyout on record to a group of investors that includes a firm managed by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

The massive deal, valuing the video-game company at about $55 billion, is the latest effort by Saudi Arabia to diversify beyond oil into sports and gaming, a financially tumultuous industry that is increasingly at the heart of youth culture around the planet.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, along with Silver Lake Management and Kushner’s Affinity Partners, agreed to pay $210 per share in cash, a 25% premium to where EA traded before the talks leaked on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is providing $20 billion of debt, the largest debt commitment for a buyout ever.

The sale is the latest sign that the deal boom expected under the Trump administration is starting to take hold, cementing the most active quarter for mergers in more than three years.

It also comes at a particularly turbulent time for the $178 billion video-game industry. During the initial pandemic lockdowns, gameplay soared and gaming culture hit new heights as TV shows and movies based on them dominated the global charts. All of which inspired video-game companies to ramp up the development of new and increasingly expensive titles with budgets that often ran into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

But lately, amid the resulting glut of new, pricey games, many players have decided to stick with old favorites rather than purchasing new titles — resulting in faltering sales, widespread layoffs and studio closures across the industry.

Electronic Arts, known for popular games such as Battlefield and EA Sports FC, ranks among the largest video-game companies in the US. The Redwood City, California-based company’s sports titles, including Madden NFL, accounted for four of the industry’s top 10 best sellers last year according to the market research firm Circana.

Recently, amid several rounds of layoffs, the company has been seeking new areas of growth to inspire players who have gravitated toward free-to-play franchises that are continually updated rather than splash out for new titles that can cost $80.

Going private will remove the distraction of quarterly earnings and investor demands. EA’s strength in sports gives the company the predictable revenue that private equity firms like.  Bloomberg News Deals Team Managing Editor Liana Baker joins Bloomberg Businessweek Daily to discuss with anchors Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec.

The transaction will be funded with cash from the consortium partners, and Saudi Arabia’s PIF will roll over its existing 9.9% stake in the company, bringing the total equity investment of about $36 billion. The deal comes with a termination fee of $1 billion should it fall apart, according to a company filing.

For Saudi Arabia’s PIF, it’s the biggest bet yet on interactive entertainment for a fund that already has a significant investment in video games, including ownership of the maker of Pokémon Go. In 2023, the fund’s Savvy Games Group bought Scopely Inc. for $4.9 billion, acquiring the company that released Monopoly Go!.

Most large deals with a foreign investor require some form of government approval. Affinity Partners — founded by the president’s son-in-law during the first Trump administration — is backed by foreign investors, including some from the Middle East.

The pact displaces the roughly $45 billion leveraged purchase of power company TXU in 2007 as the largest buyout on record. It’s also one of the largest M&A deals of 2025 and shows Wall Street’s appetite for game-changing mergers despite recession fears and geopolitical concerns impacting the broader economy.

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