Saudi Arabia to own almost all of EA under buyout plan, report says

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund could reportedly ain astir each of Electronic Arts Inc. nether the buyout program for the video crippled giant.

The Saudi money would ain 93.4% of Redwood City-based EA, according to a Wall Street Journal study Tuesday, which cited a caller filing with a Brazilian antitrust regulator. Private equity steadfast Silver Lake Partners would ain 5.5% of the gaming company, portion the Jared Kushner-run Affinity Partners would assertion 1.1%, the Journal reported.

Representatives from EA, Silver Lake Partners and Affinity Partners did not respond instantly to requests for comment.

Announced successful September, the $55-billion woody for EA would beryllium the biggest leveraged buyout successful history. The woody is expected to adjacent adjacent year, pending regulatory and shareholder approval.

EA has scheduled a gathering for shareholders to ballot connected the connection aboriginal this month. If the woody is approved, the institution known for “The Sims” and “Madden NFL” volition spell private.

The buyout connection comes arsenic the video crippled manufacture has undergone consolidation and has struggled to instrumentality to the precocious maturation rates it saw during the pandemic.

While video games stay popular, and immoderate franchises are seeing occurrence successful their modulation to movie oregon series, EA’s yearly revenues person been stagnant implicit the past 3 fiscal years, fluctuating betwixt $7.4 cardinal and $7.6 billion.

Times unit writer Wendy Lee contributed to this report.