Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and investment groups affiliated with Jared Kushner completed their $55 billion acquisition of Electronic Arts this week, officially taking the *FIFA*, *Madden NFL*, and *Apex Legends* publisher private in the largest gaming transaction on record. The deal, which values EA at approximately $175 per share, removes one of the industry's oldest publicly traded studios from NASDAQ after more than three decades.
The transaction closed without regulatory hurdles in the United States or European Union, though the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States required PIF to establish a Delaware-domiciled holding structure with two independent U.S. directors on EA's reconstituted board. Kushner's Affinity Partners holds a 22 percent economic interest, with PIF controlling the remaining stake. EA's chief executive announced senior leadership changes concurrent with the close, including the departure of its CFO and general counsel, both twenty-year veterans. Their replacements come from Tencent and Embracer Group, signaling operational preferences.
The buyout arrives as public gaming equities trade at fourteen-year lows relative to revenue multiples, compressed by consumer spending rotation and platform fee disputes with Apple and Google. EA's trailing-twelve-month revenue of $7.4 billion generated operating margins near 28 percent, but its share price had declined 31 percent from 2021 peaks before deal rumors surfaced in November. PIF's willingness to pay a 43 percent premium to the undisturbed stock price reflects sovereign tolerance for patient capital deployment and strategic interest in intellectual property that travels across geographies without localization friction. *FIFA* alone generates over $1.6 billion annually, much of it from markets where PIF holds adjacent infrastructure investments.
The structure matters more than the price. By taking EA private, PIF and Kushner eliminate quarterly earnings pressure that has constrained multi-year development cycles and franchise experimentation. Private ownership also permits cross-border licensing arrangements that would have triggered public-company disclosure requirements—particularly relevant given Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 initiative to position the kingdom as a regional entertainment hub. EA's Frostbite engine and live-service infrastructure become strategic assets for a sovereign wealth fund with stakes in Nintendo, Capcom, and Nexon, creating potential for operational synergies that U.S. antitrust authorities cannot easily address when the acquirer sits outside traditional regulatory jurisdiction.
Allocators should monitor three developments over the next eighteen months. First, whether EA's studios in Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Stockholm experience talent attrition as employees react to ownership change and equity compensation conversion terms. Second, PIF's approach to EA's $2.1 billion in annual live-service revenue, which could shift toward monetization models more aggressive than public-market investors tolerated. Third, the downstream effects on Take-Two Interactive and Activision Blizzard King valuations, as the EA buyout establishes a valuation floor for remaining independent publishers with comparable margins and IP portfolios.
The transaction closes the same week Tencent reported its first year-over-year gaming revenue decline in company history, marking a reversal in the capital flows that have defined interactive entertainment M&A since 2016.