Giant game electronic arts purchased in an unprecedented agreement of $ 55 billion

Electronic Arts (EA), one of the largest game companies in the world, has concluded an agreement to sell the company for $ 55 billion (41 billion pounds Sterling).

The Buyer Consortium includes the public investment fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF), Silver Lake and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners.

EA is known to manufacture and publish the best -selling games such as EA FC, formerly known as FIFA, The Sims and Mass Effect.

It is considered the greatest lever redemption in history – where a significant amount of the purchase is funded by borrowing money.

The agreement will take private – which means that all of its public shares will be purchased and will no longer be negotiated on the stock market.

The purchase price puts a significant 25% premium on the market value of the EA, enhancing it at $ 210 per share.

This is the second most precious game purchase in history, following the $ 69 billion chord in Microsoft to buy the publisher of Call of Duty Activision Blizzard – which took place after major battles with world regulators, the United Kingdom concerned to harm competition.

In the end, the agreement was only approved after Microsoft presented the rights to distribute the company games on consoles and PCs on the cloud to the Assassin Ubisoft belief manufacturer.

The boss of EA Andrew Wilson, who will remain in office, said that it was a “powerful recognition” of the work of the company.

“With our partners, we will create transformative experiences to inspire future generations,” he said.

Companies buying EA will contribute to around 36 billion dollars, the remaining amount funded by loans.

“EA was opened to a potential buyer to help progress for a while,” industry expert Christopher Dring told the BBC.

“But an acquisition of investment capital is a surprise and there is a lot of anxiety of the industry around this agreement.”

He said the agreement would result in $ 20 billion in debt – which should be reimbursed.

“The income generated by major matches like EA Sports FC, Madden and Battlefield 6 will be necessary to serve this debt, which could have an impact on EA’s ability to invest in new games,” he said.

“Other concerns of the industry are whether it could lead to new reductions to EA, especially if the pressure from private companies again provides stronger cash flows, once again to serve this debt.”

This is a massive purchase of a company that has been synonymous with the game industry for over 40 years.

Meanwhile, EA has been responsible for some of the biggest series of play in history. His football titles, now known as EA FC, have sold 325 million copies since the first release in 1993.

Sims have sold more than 200 million copies and need more than 150 million speed.

But he was also the publisher of many other popular titles – being often the partner of choice for games in the Harry Potter and James Bond series in the past.

Purchase will be a large feather of play in the ceiling of Saudi Arabia, which has increased its presence in the industry in recent years.

In March 2025, the country’s investment fund paid $ 3.5 billion to buy the Niantic Games Division – giving it control of the successful mobile game Pokémon Go.

The purchase has become a part of Scopely Inc – Makers of Monopoly Go – which was itself purchased by the Savvy Filial Savvy Games group for $ 4.9 billion in 2023.

Saudi Arabia has made waves in the Esports industry, welcoming major tournaments, including the Esports World Cup, and it will also host the planned Olympic Games of 2027.

The country already has participations in other major play companies such as Nintendo and Take-Two Interactive, but the purchase of EA marks a significant extension of its scope.

Its PIF has hundreds of billions of assets because of its oil wealth, and it is controlled by Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in the country, whose government has been accused of human rights violations.

A United Nations report in 2019 said that “the state of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is responsible for” the death of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist who criticized the country’s government.

Saudi Arabia has always denied it.