EA to Go Private: Inside the Acquisition and the Bigger PE Trend

• Electronic Arts (EA) was just acquired for $55 billion in an all-cash leveraged buyout

• The purchasing group includes Saudi Arabia’s PIF and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners

• The purchase values EA at $210 per share, sending stock price flying

Why Now? Why This Price? Premiums, Stakes, and Strategy

Video game giant EA has agreed to be taken private in an all-cash, $55 billion deal at $210 per share, which is about a 25% premium from the company’s last unaffected close on September 25th. The buyer group consists of Saudi Arabia’s PIF, Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, and Silver Lake. 

As part of the deal, EA will delist from the NASDAQ. Their headquarters will remain in Redwood City, California, and the target date for the deal’s closure is Q1 2027, over a full year from now. This is the largest leveraged buyout of all time, eclipsing the record of $45 billion set in 2007 when Kohlberg Kravis Roberts acquired TXU Corporation. 

The deal is financed by $36 billion in equity and $20 billion in debt, with JPMorgan as the leading lender in the debt package. PIF already holds a 9.9% stake in EA and will roll it. The deal is still pending a shareholder vote, multi-jurisdiction approvals, and potential foreign investment review given PIF’s role. 

In a strategic context, the deal makes sense for the buyers, who want to scale a globally recognized portfolio for intellectual property in video games. The buyers are also betting that AI tools can reduce development costs and boost profitability of new games. 

For EA, the deal makes sense as they can restructure away from quarterly pressure, invest through cycles, and simultaneously protect their flagship franchises, like EA Sports FC (formerly FIFA), Madden, The Sims, and Battlefield. 

Private Equity’s New Super-Cycle, by the Numbers

This deal comes amid a surge in private equity acquisitions worldwide. Public-to-private deals totaled $250 billion globally in 2024, and deal sizes have only become larger in 2025. 27% of private equity spending this calendar year involved deals of $10 billion or more; in 2024, that number was 11%. The number of deals over $1 billion are also up 35% year-over-year. 

A part of the reason for this surge is that public-to-private deals have flourished for the buyers in recent years; as of August 2025, United States public-to-private value reached an all-time high of $85.3 billion - and that’s before this EA deal was made public. This growth, combined with longer holding periods and a new record being set for private equity acquisitions, indicates that private equity is only becoming more prominent over time. 

If PE Can Buy EA, Who’s Next?

Private equity showing the propensity to shell out progressively more jaw-dropping sums paints an interesting picture for the future of public companies. For one, take-private risk premia are clearly growing, which makes deals more enticing. EA took home a 25% premium in their deal, and similar premiums could entice boards, especially where growth is choppy or capex cycles are skewed. 

Private ownership also eases operational rewiring for management; they can invest, cut, and replatform without quarterly scrutiny. This is particularly vital as it pertains to AI tooling and longer-dated content bets, which can look dicey in the short term. This is the buyer thesis cited explicitly in the EA deal; they know that they could benefit from AI tooling, but don’t want to do it while they are scrutinized every three months. 

Furthermore, continued public-to-private activity will reduce the supply of investable companies in public markets. This means that index investors will capture a one-time premium, but lose long-term upside if value creation happens privately. As more and more companies are acquired by private equity, index investors could find themselves looking to pivot into equities. 

All told, we are still a long way from private equity being able to acquire any companies worth 12 figures, but growth is a snowball, and these firms are only growing richer. A day may come soon where private equity is able to acquire the Qualcomm’s and Verizon’s of the world, and one would expect the IBM’s and Novo Nordisk’s of the world to follow. Should that day come, who knows what investors would be left with in the market.

Gus Downing is host of the tastylive Network show Risk and Reward. @GainsByGus

For live daily programming, market news and commentary, visit tastylive or the YouTube channels tastylive (for options traders), and tastyliveTrending for stocks, futures, forex & macro.

Trade with a better broker, open a tastytrade account today. tastylive, Inc. and tastytrade, Inc. are separate but affiliated companies.