EA Telah Resmi Dijual, Dan Apa Yang Terjadi Selanjutnya Bisa Menyakitkan

The blockbuster buyout of Electronic Arts has been completed, with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund taking ownership of the gaming giant in the biggest leveraged buyout (LBO) in the history of commerce.

The $55 billion deal includes billions in debt for EA, which has prompted fears of massive cost-cutting with projected layoffs, studio closures, and game cancellations. Nothing has been confirmed as of yet, however.

"This moment recognizes the extraordinary people whose creativity, ambition, and passion have made EA one of the world's leading interactive entertainment companies," said EA CEO Andrew Wilson in the official announcement. "We're entering this next chapter from a position of strength with partners who share our vision and ambition. Together, we'll invest boldly, accelerate innovation, and built the next generation of games and experiences for the hundreds of millions of players and fans who inspire us every day."

"Entertainment and sports are key areas of strategic focus for PIF, and are among the fastest growing and evolving sectors around the world," added PIF Deputy Governor and Head of International Investments Turqi Alnowaiser. "Together, the Consortium is uniquely positioned to be a long-term partner to EA's management team in driving sustained growth and innovation for EA and the industry."

The PIF is buying EA alongside Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner's private equity firm Affinity Partners and investment company Silver Lake. The company's co-CEO, Egon Durban, was previously on the board of directors at the gaming company Unity.

EA announced the buyout back in September 2025, but it didn't close until today, August 4, due to the regulatory approval process. It was due to close earlier, but after Europe approved it in July, that set the stage for it to finally do so.

PIF previously had a 9.9% stake in EA, and that's getting rolled into this deal. EA stockholders will get $210/share as part of the buyout, which represents a tidy 25% premium over the company's stock price on the last full day before the deal came to light and subsequently sent the price soaring. Now that the deal is done, EA is being removed from the public stock market. And with that, we'll have much less insight into how EA is operating from a financial perspective.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson will remain CEO of the company, but it remains to be seen how long he may stick around. He became CEO in 2013 and has overseen a period of massive growth for EA, as the stock was trading around $27 when he became CEO. His remuneration has grown as well, with the latest company filings revealing Wilson was paid $38 million in total compensation in the previous fiscal year. In that same year, EA laid off many developers, including people who worked on the successful FPS Battlefield 6.

Concerns

Developers at BioWare said they feared that the RPG studio could be one of the first EA-owned companies to see cuts under the new ownership. BioWare is known, in part, for making pro-diversity games featuring inclusive storytelling and characters. Longtime BioWare writer Patrick Weekes, who was laid off in 2025, speculated that EA’s new owners, including the PIF, might want to avoid “gay stuff” and politics that the PIF’s leadership does not agree with. Developers working on The Sims have expressed ongoing concerns as well.

Additionally, cosplayers raided EA’s California headquarters in protest of the deal.

EA's $55 billion sale is not the biggest-ever gaming acquisition, as that record belongs to Microsoft, which paid $75.4 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard.

The PIF already bought the mobile and social gaming giant Scopely (Monopoly Go) and Niantic's gaming division, including Pokemon Go, so this is just the latest massive move for the Kingdom.

Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis said EA may look to “cut excess spending and rationalize the company’s workforce” to help bring in more money to address the debt. A report from Financial Times said EA might look to further bolster AI tools and technologies to help cut development costs and drive profitability. To be sure, EA had said it was already doing this, as are other companies who are embracing AI in an attempt to reduce costs.

Mat Piscatella of Circana told GI.biz no one can say for sure what happens next for EA, but history may not be on EA’s side. “Leveraged buyouts have a certain history that generally hasn’t been great for the acquired companies,” he said.

EA's final earnings report

EA's latest earnings report, released on August 3, showed gains for revenue and profit in the April-June quarter. The company's net bookings of $1.35 billion increased $51 million year-over-year, but came in below analyst estimates.

EA said increased sales of extra content for Apex Legends helped with the increase in bookings, as did full game and microtransaction sales for Battlefield 6. However, these gains were partially offset by lower sales of Split Fiction, which released during the same quarter the previous year.

EA's earnings reports will no longer be made public now that the company has gone private. Some experts and industry veterans believe EA going private, and no longer needing to answer to public stakeholders, will lead to some benefits.

Fiona Sperry was the top boss at EA’s Criterion Games and is now the CEO of Three Fields Entertainment. She said in an interview with GI.biz that, “I’d be really excited about the opportunity that going private would entail.” Publicly traded companies answer to their shareholders and are known to push games out the door to meet a quarterly earnings deadline. In a private setup, a company like EA could–in theory–change how it releases games.

“However experienced you are, the reality of game development means that you’re often having to compromise your game to hit a date–a date you most often had to commit to long before you’ve finalized the design,” she said. “You have to design to the date rather than the other way round. And it’s really hard to do that when you’re trying to innovate.”

“EA has amazing creative teams and hopefully this will give them the chance to really utilise that creativity and take some risks. Don’t get me wrong–dates are important for focusing everyone–but sometimes you just need more time,” she added.

Piers Harding-Rolls of Ampere Analysis said EA going private means the company is no longer beholden to the market at large and subject to everything that comes with being a publicly traded company. This, in turn, could allow EA to focus less on meeting quarterly financial targets and more on “long-term strategies and investments.” Of course, the investor consortium acquiring EA will surely have its own performance targets and demands that EA meets–not to mention the aforementioned debt to address–though the setup won’t be the same as when a company is available on the open market.