The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners completed their $55bn all-cash take-private of Electronic Arts, closing the largest leveraged buyout on record. EA stockholders received $210 per share in cash, and the company's stock ceased trading on NASDAQ. The consortium's equity is heavily weighted toward PIF, which holds 93.4% of the company, with Silver Lake taking 5.5% and Affinity Partners 1.1%. The equity check is around $36bn, alongside roughly $20bn of committed debt financing arranged by JPMorgan.

The deal required extensive regulatory clearance, including US antitrust, a CFIUS national security review, and both a standard EU antitrust review and a review under the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation. Andrew Wilson continues as chairman and CEO, stating the partnership will allow EA to "invest boldly, accelerate innovation, and build the next generation of games." The Saudi wealth fund, which held a minority stake for over five years, has methodically built a deep gaming portfolio through Savvy Games Group, with investments in Nintendo, Take-Two Interactive, and Activision Blizzard.

For Silver Lake, managing roughly $114bn in AUM, the deal marks a return to the take-private playbook that defined the firm with the Dell buyout. CEO Egon Durban emphasized AI is central to the value creation thesis. Affinity Partners, founded by Jared Kushner in 2021 and managing over $6bn, takes the smallest but highly visible position. The debt package, layered onto EA's existing $2.2bn in pre-transaction debt, means interest costs must be serviced entirely from game revenue, making disciplined capital allocation critical to the deal's success.