Electronic Arts (EA) has announced that all regulatory approvals required for its expected sale to Saudi Arabia and multiple private equity groups have been obtained, and that the sale is expected to go through next week, on August 4.
This comes from a filing today, which included the following statement:
As of July 30, 2026, all regulatory approvals required to complete the Merger have been obtained. Electronic Arts currently expects the Merger to close on or
about the close of trading on August 4, 2026. Completion of the Merger remains subject to the satisfaction or waiver of the remaining customary closing
conditions set forth in the Merger Agreement.
So while technically it’s still possible the merger could be waylayed by something unexpected, as of now it seems almost certain that EA will be taken private and sold for $55 billion next week.
Specifically, it is to be acquired by a group composed of the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake Partners, and Affinity Partners, which is a private equity firm owned by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The Saudi Arabia PIF has been actively buying up shares in video game companies such as EA, Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, Take-Two Interactive, and more, and has fully purchased both Monopoly Go! maker Scopely and Pokemon Go developer Niantic.
This would be the second-largest acquisition in all of video games, following only Microsoft’s $75.4 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard back in 2023. It will also see the company taken private, meaning its financials and other helpful information on the company’s situation will no longer be available publicly.
Andrew Wilson is expected to remain in the role of CEO upon the closure of the sale, and it will remain headquartered in California. Beyond that, it is unclear how this sale will impact the thousands of employees of EA scattered around the globe, who have already been in a precarious position the last few years due to a steady string of layoffs impacting everything from Apex Legends to BioWare to Skate and the wildly successful Battlefield 6. Wilson received an $8 million bonus for the company’s performance over the past fiscal year.
