Tech M&A Watch: EU Approves Saudi-Led EA Buyout, Leaving Two Bigger Hurdles Standing

The CODEW | Tech M&A Watch

The European Commission has unconditionally cleared the $55 billion take-private acquisition of Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA), removing one regulatory obstacle from what is already the largest leveraged buyout in history — but not the last one standing between the deal and closing.

The Commission's decision, issued under the EU Merger Regulation, approves the takeover of EA by a consortium led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), alongside private equity firm Silver Lake and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners. Regulators found the transaction would not raise competition concerns across the mobile, PC, console, or esports markets in the European Economic Area, and required no divestitures or structural remedies.

Deal Terms and Ownership

First announced in September 2025 and approved by EA shareholders that December, the deal values the company at $55 billion and pays stockholders $210 per share in cash — a roughly 25% premium to EA's last unaffected trading price. Once completed, PIF is set to hold approximately 93.4% of EA, rolling in a stake it already held before the deal, with Silver Lake owning around 5.5% and Affinity Partners holding the remaining 1.1%. The transaction surpasses the $45 billion buyout of TXU Energy in 2007 as the largest leveraged buyout on record.

The franchises changing hands include EA Sports FC, Battlefield, The Sims, Apex Legends, and Mass Effect.

One Hurdle Down — A Bigger One Still Ahead

Merger control clearance is a milestone, not the finish line. The Commission is separately reviewing the deal under its Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR), which requires scrutiny of any acquisition where the target has significant EU turnover and the acquirer received substantial foreign government financial support in the prior three years — a framework that squarely captures a sovereign wealth fund with roughly $1 trillion in assets. That review, seen by several analysts as the tougher test, has a decision expected by July 30. Two earlier deals involving Middle Eastern state investors — ADNOC's purchase of Covestro and e&'s bid for parts of PPF — only cleared FSR review after lengthy Phase 2 investigations and imposed remedies, so the outcome here isn't a formality.

In the US, the deal remains under separate scrutiny. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Elizabeth Warren have pressed the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) over national-security risks tied to EA's user data and AI development work, while more than 40 House Democrats, backed by the Communications Workers of America, have asked the FTC to examine the deal's potential impact on labor and competition in the games industry. None of that scrutiny has produced a formal block, but it means the acquisition is still working through parallel reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. Completion is currently expected in the first quarter of 2027.

Why It Matters

For Saudi Arabia, the acquisition is the largest deal yet in the Vision 2030 push to make the Kingdom a global hub for gaming and esports, and PIF's portfolio already includes stakes in other major publishers. For the industry, it's another data point in a broader consolidation trend, with a debt-financed take-private putting one of the largest US game publishers under majority state-linked foreign ownership. And for regulators, it's a live test case for how the EU's newer foreign-subsidy tools handle sovereign wealth capital in tech and media — a question other Gulf-backed deals in Europe are likely to run into next.

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Tech M&A Watch is The CODEW's flagship editorial series covering mergers, acquisitions, venture funding, IPOs, and strategic partnerships across the technology industry. It analyzes how these deals reshape enterprise software, AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and the broader technology market, focusing on their business and competitive impact rather than simply reporting the transactions.