Video game publisher Electronic Arts announced Monday that it agreed to be taken private in a deal valued at roughly $55 billion by a group of investors that includes a firm managed by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.
The deal would pay stockholders $210 per share in cash, a 25% premium to the company’s share price before news of the deal leaked.
If completed, it would be the largest buyout of a publicly traded company to date, not adjusting for inflation. The investors would partly finance the deal with a $20 billion loan from JPMorgan Chase.
The deal is led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which already owns about 10% of Electronic Arts, as well as private equity firm Silver Lake and Kushner’s Affinity Partners.
The move is the latest effort by the Saudi fund to advance into gaming as it looks to diversify its investments away from oil. In 2021, the fund created the Savvy Games Group to spearhead a planned $38 billion investment in the industry. Riyadh, the Saudi capital, hosted the Esports World Cup this summer, a video game tournament with $70 million in prize money.
The fund’s gaming push is part of a broader bet by the kingdom on sports, which includes backing LIV Golf, a rival to the PGA Tour, a stake in the Professional Fighters League and major investments in soccer at home and abroad. For its part, Electronic Arts is a sports-gaming juggernaut, with EA Sports FC for soccer and Madden for football.
The Saudi fund is “uniquely positioned in the global gaming and esports sectors, building and supporting ecosystems,” Turqi Alnowaiser, deputy governor and head of international investments at the Public Investment Fund, said in a statement.
“I am more energized than ever about the future we are building,” said Andrew Wilson, the CEO of Electronic Arts.
The previous record for the buyout of a public company was the $32 billion acquisition (excluding debt) of Texas utility company TXU by a group of private equity firms in 2007.