Electronic Arts is no longer a public company. A Saudi-led consortium closed its $55 billion acquisition of the gaming publisher Friday, removing one of the industry's oldest major studios from Nasdaq after thirty-one years. The Public Investment Fund anchored the buyer group, which includes undisclosed regional and institutional co-investors.
The transaction is the largest gaming sector buyout on record, surpassing Microsoft's $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition by structure—Microsoft kept Activision public through regulatory review before integrating it into a public parent. EA's delisting is immediate. The consortium paid $152 per share in cash, a 24% premium to EA's thirty-day volume-weighted average before initial acquisition rumors surfaced in November. EA's trailing twelve-month revenue sat at $7.4 billion, placing the deal at roughly 7.4x sales, within range of recent gaming multiples but notable for the absence of synergy justification typical in strategic buyouts.
The implications extend beyond one company's capital structure. EA's franchise portfolio—FIFA (rebranded as EA Sports FC), Madden, Apex Legends, Battlefield—generates $3.2 billion in annual live-service revenue, predominantly from North American and European players. That cash flow now accrues to a sovereign wealth fund with explicit mandates to build domestic intellectual property capabilities and diversify hydrocarbon dependence. PIF has deployed $38 billion into gaming and entertainment since 2021, including stakes in Nintendo, Capcom, and Nexon, but this is its first full operating control of a Western AAA publisher. The Kingdom's Vision 2030 framework allocates $50 billion to gaming and esports infrastructure by decade-end. EA's studios in Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Stockholm become nodes in that network, with talent and IP portability implications that rival publishers are already modeling.
Second-order effects include repricing of comparable public gaming equities and recalibration of studio M&A expectations. Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft, and Embracer Group all trade below 5x forward sales despite owning similar live-service franchises. If EA's private ownership accelerates revenue per user through longer development cycles and reduced quarterly earnings pressure, public comps face a structural discount. Separately, mid-tier studios now have a clearer exit multiple reference point—and a buyer with $925 billion in assets under management. PIF's Savvy Games Group, the consortium's operational arm, has stated it will pursue additional acquisitions in the $1 billion to $10 billion range targeting mobile, PC, and console franchises with proven live-ops models.
Allocators should monitor three developments over the next eighteen months. First, EA's first full fiscal year under private ownership concludes in March 2026; any material shifts in release cadence, monetization models, or geographic revenue mix will signal the consortium's strategic intent. Second, Savvy Games Group is expected to announce at least two additional studio acquisitions by Q3 2025, per sources familiar with its capital deployment schedule. Third, the Saudi Entertainment Authority is negotiating with EA to relocate a portion of live-service operations to a Riyadh development hub by late 2026, which would represent the first large-scale Western studio migration to the Gulf.
EA's employee count stands at 13,000. The consortium has committed to maintaining headcount and studio autonomy through 2027, but has not addressed equity compensation structures post-delisting, a detail that will determine retention rates among senior developers.
The takeaway
$55B Saudi buyout removes EA from public markets, reprices gaming M&A, and extends PIF's operational control into Western AAA studios.
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