After over a year of tense debate, Electronic Arts has reported it’s achieved “all regulatory approvals” for the proposed $55bn private acquisition of the company.
In an 8K filing (a mandatory US business report for major corporate events), EA writes the deal is expected to go ahead on the 4th August. That means that the leveraged buyout by Saudi Arabia (via its Public Investment Fund) in collaboration with private equity company Affinity Partners and investment firm Silver Lake will likely happen in less than a week.
The only catch presented by this filing is that completion of the merger remains: “subject to the satisfaction or waiver of the remaining customary closing conditions set forth in the merger agreement.” Basically, as long as the final points of order are met, the deal should go through.
This would be a record-breaking leveraged buyout – meaning an acquisition is made in large part with borrowed debt rather than cold hard cash. The typical way this debt is paid back is using the income and assets of the purchased company, so once this deal goes through, the stakes will likely be high for EA to perform well. Generative AI appears to be one tool in EA’s belt for doing so, per its executives.
Multiple institutions across the world eventually – after much debate – approved this merger including the European Commission and the US Fed (despite the US Video Game union writing in protest). EA shareholders also approved the merger last December, so as EA states in the 8k, the path is clear for the deal to go through.
Ever since this has been proposed, multiple companies involved in the leveraged buyout have been criticized. Saudi Arabia has a poor history of human rights abuses, and its ongoing financial spread into the video game industry has been criticised by human rights organisations as sportswashing. Affinity Partners’ CEO Jared Kushner is also the son-in-law of US president Donald Trump, which some suspect was a reason this deal went through US regulators smoothly.
This new filing addressing the upcoming merger comes soon after another report containing the bonus packages for EA executives. This includes the revelation that EA CEO Andrew Wilson received roughly $38m in bonus payments and company stock in the last financial year.
While no one knows for certain what will happen when the leveraged buyout of EA goes ahead, the pressure is certainly on for the company. Especially given widespread layoffs happening across the Western gaming industry. What EA will look like in a few years time under new management remains to be seen.
