EA shareholders sign off PIF buyout deal

• Transaction worth $55bn
• Four in five shareholders agree
• PIF to take 93.6% stake

Shareholders in game developer Electronic Arts have officially agreed to sell the majority of the company to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

Four in five EA shareholders consented to the merger in an extraordinary meeting on Monday, a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed.

With the deal, a consortium comprising PIF, private equity company Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners, an asset manager headed by US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, will buy the California-based company for $55 billion.

Sovereign wealth fund PIF is reportedly set to take a 93.6 percent share of EA and will roll over its existing 9.9 percent holding in the game developer.

EA makes some of the world’s most popular video games, including EA Sports FC (formerly known as Fifa), Battlefield 6, Apex Legends, and Madden.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pledged in January to invest another $600 billion in the US during Trump’s second term in office.

Further reading:

• EA buyout gives Crown Prince ‘crown jewel’ of video games
• The ups and downs of PIF’s US holdings
• PIF prepares for ‘leaner, meaner, but more profitable’ future