EA Reportedly Nearing $50 Billion Take-Private Backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund

Electronic Arts might be about to disappear from the stock market ticker, and fast. A new Wall Street Journal report says a take-private deal could be announced as soon as next week, with a price tag that might hit $50 billion. That would be, frankly, colossal.

What the Journal is hearing

• EA is nearing a deal to go private, potentially revealed as early as next week.
• Silver Lake (the private equity firm) and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund are among the investors putting up the money.
• EA's current market value is around $43 billion, but the ongoing price talks could push the deal value as high as $50 billion.
• If it comes together, the Journal says it would rank as the largest leveraged buyout on record, not adjusting for inflation.

Quick translation: what going private actually means

In plain English, EA would be taken off the public stock market. Instead of millions of shares trading on an exchange, a much smaller group of private investors would own the company outright. These deals are usually financed with a lot of debt — hence the whole leveraged buyout thing — and they typically aim to boost cash flow and streamline operations. What that looks like at a giant publisher is the part everyone is squinting at right now.

Why the Saudi angle stands out

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund being in the mix is notable for a reason: it already holds sizable stakes in big publishers including Take-Two Interactive, Nintendo, and yes, EA itself. In other words, this is not a new player suddenly wandering onto the field — it is an investor that has been quietly building a footprint across games for years.

So what does this mean for EA's games?

The honest answer: it is too early to say. EA owns plenty of beloved franchises, but the crown jewels are the sports machines that print money every year: EA Sports FC, Madden NFL, and the returning College Football. Compared to those, something like Mass Effect 5 is a rounding error on the revenue chart. A deal of this size usually signals an even stronger focus on dependable, recurring cash — but until the new owners show their hand, any prediction about specific series is a guess.

The bigger industry context (and a bit of inside baseball)

This is not happening in a vacuum. Ubisoft, for example, has been doing the careful PR dance around its Assassin's Creed Mirage DLC tied to Saudi Arabia — the DLC is set there, it was announced there, and Ubisoft says it retains creative control. Even so, employees have reportedly worried it might be funded by Saudi money. It is a reminder that the Middle East's investment push into games is not just about stocks; it is showing up in creative spaces too, which can get... complicated.

What to watch next

The WSJ says an announcement could hit as soon as next week, but price talks are still live. If the numbers land where they are circling, this would be the biggest leveraged buyout ever on the books, at least without adjusting for inflation. The moment that becomes official, the real questions start: who ends up on the new board, how aggressive the cost-cutting gets, and whether EA's release slate shifts even more toward the sure things.