Electronic Arts is set to complete its transition to private ownership on August 4, ending a 35-year history of trading on public stock exchanges, the video game developer announced.
The buyers are Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), investment firm Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners. The acquisition is valued at $55 billion, and EA said it has already received all required regulatory approvals to close the transaction.
CEO Andrew Wilson will remain at the helm when the deal closes, and the company’s headquarters will continue to operate in Redwood City, California. The closing comes roughly one month later than originally planned.
In recent years EA, like much of the video games industry, has faced a wave of layoffs, studio closures, and project cancellations. Despite this, the company posted revenue of $7.5 billion in its most recent financial year. A successful release of Battlefield 6 helped strengthen its market position. Its most prominent franchises include EA Sports FC, The Sims, Madden NFL, and Titanfall.
EA has also restricted access to its games in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions of Ukraine, saying the move relates to compliance with international sanctions, embargoes, or other legal restrictions. The company had previously stopped game sales to players in Crimea, Belarus, Iran, Cuba, Syria, North Korea, and Russia.
