Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is reportedly considering combining EA – which it acquired in a $55bn leveraged buyout earlier this year – with its Savvy Games Group, all under one banner.
Speaking to Bloomberg, unnamed sources familiar to the matter claimed the merger between the EA and Savvy Gaming Group is intended to “ensure better coordination between its assets”. This comes roughly two months after the record-breaking leveraged buyout of EA was finally finalised, placing the creator of EA FC, Apex Legends, Battlefield 6, and more under new ownership.
Savvy Games Group is a PIF subsidiary that already owns Scopely (creator of Pokémon Go) and various esports companies like ESL, as well as a variety of partial stakes in Capcom, Nintendo, Koei Tecmo, and others. It has been the spearhead of Saudi Arabia’s expansion into the video game industry for many years, but was notably not used to buy out EA earlier this year.
Savvy Games Group is also currently planning to acquire Moonton, a Chinese mobile gaming company, for $6bn. However, Bloomberg reports this is unlikely to go ahead until the merger between EA and Savvy Games Group happens. Both EA and the PIF declined to provide official comment to Bloomberg when asked.
Last week, the CEO of Savvy Games Group, Brian Ward, stepped down from his role. He oversaw many of Savvy’s massive acquisitions and investments over the past few years, and his departure looks increasingly interesting given this new report.
What the future looks like for EA following its acquisition has been the focus of much discussion. Some experts believe the nature of the leveraged buyout, and the substantial amount of debt EA now has to pay off annually, could result in EA abandoning its single-player portfolio and cutting staff.
