Electronic Arts finalized $55bn sale to buyer group including Saudi PIF

The sale of gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA) for $55bn (£41bn) to a group of buyers including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) has been finalised.

The American company is known for making and publishing best-selling games such as EA FC, formerly known as Fifa, The Sims and Mass Effect.

The investors, who include Affinity Partners - led by President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner - are taking EA private, meaning all of its public shares will be purchased and it will no longer be traded on a stock exchange.

It is thought to be the largest leveraged buyout in history, meaning a significant part of it is paid for with borrowed money, which the company will have to pay back.

This is because as well as the $36bn it has already put into the deal, PIF needs to borrow $20bn from investment bankers JPMorgan to close it, with the business taking on the debt.

How paying back this debt will affect EA as a business has been the source of much speculation from journalists and analysts.

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier surmised it could lead to "mass layoffs, more aggressive monetization, and other big cost-cutting measures, external", for one of the industry's biggest companies.

Christopher Dring, editor-in-chief and co-founder of the Game Business, said the nature of the buyout, external was also likely to mean "a very hands-on approach from the investment group".

"Private equity firms are typically aggressive in their management of companies," he said.

Shams Jorjani, the chief executive of Arrowhead Game Studios - an independent studio which worked with publishers Sony to make the record-breaking Helldivers 2 - told the BBC that EA has traditionally been seen as having a wide portfolio of games, from blockbusters to smaller indie titles.

"This deal is consolidation, no question - and I wonder whether new ownership optimises for the safe bet - more sequels, more mega-franchises - over that breadth," he said.

"I'm hopeful this leads to more of that range, not less, but if it turns EA into a sequel-and-mega-franchise machine, that's a real waste of one of the best catalogues in the industry."

The question as to why Saudi Arabia in particular has spent an astronomical amount to buy EA has been a hot topic since news of the deal broke in September 2025.

George Osborn, journalist and author of Power Play: Video Games, Politics and the Battle for Global Influence, said it was still an "appealing" financial opportunity to PIF, external despite the enormous price tag.

He pointed to the longevity of the 35-year-old business and its "seemingly evergreen" live-service games which are continuously updated after release.

Despite the company facing many of the similar setbacks felt across the industry over the past few years, such as layoffs and game cancellations, it has had a strong financial performance more recently.

Last year EA generated revenue of $7.5bn, and the October release of Battlefield 6 broke franchise records with over 7 million copies sold in its first three days. Despite this, more layoffs for the teams involved followed.

But Osborn said EA's value to the PIF was "not purely economic" - instead, it was about "owning a soft power asset that is quietly entrenched in the sporting community".