The publisher has confirmed that it is being taken private in a $55 billion deal that ropes in private equity firm Silver Lake, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners.
The group is paying $210 per share in cash, a 25 per cent premium on EA’s stock before whispers of the deal leaked. That’s still a stingy offer compared with the 45 per cent premium Microsoft waved at Activision Blizzard in 2022.
At the time, Activision was stumbling over dodgy leadership and a dud Call of Duty, giving Microsoft an easy in. EA, by contrast, has been riding a wave of optimism over Battlefield 6, due 10 October.
The cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street had been getting giddy over the 18-year-old shooter series making a comeback. Both Jefferies and Citigroup were expecting the new entry to smash EA’s sales forecasts.
Some analysts wondered why on earth EA would sell now instead of waiting for a bigger payday.
TD Cowen’s Doug Creutz wrote, “We can certainly understand why EA’s management and board might want to monetise the company’s value. What makes less sense is why they would want to do it at this time and at this price.”
He thought investors should have held out for $60 billion.
EA clearly wasn’t in the mood to gamble. The outfit has been burned before: EA Sports FC, its mega-selling football franchise formerly known as FIFA, saw a dip in engagement earlier this year that triggered its biggest single-day stock plunge in nearly 17 years. A one-game hit isn’t the safety net it once was.
The looming arrival of Grand Theft Auto VI in May 2026 makes things even trickier. Rockstar’s behemoth is expected to rake in $4.3 billion in its first fiscal year, sucking oxygen out of any rival action game, no matter how polished. EA may be hoping Battlefield 6 sneaks in ahead of the storm, but the odds of it maintaining momentum are slim.
For Kushner, though, the timing is ideal. With his Father-in-Law Trump squeezing Big Tech for multimillion-dollar settlements and his son-in-law now in control of a global gaming powerhouse, the family’s reach into digital entertainment just deepened. For EA’s board, the $55 billion cash parachute means they can float gently away before the next round of industry turbulence hits.