Deal to be one of the biggest in gaming and tech history

Electronic Arts is nearing a $50bn deal to go private. A consortium of investors including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners is in talks for one of the largest buyouts in industry history.

Source Financial Times

JPMorgan is expected to finance over $20bn in debt for the transaction. If completed, the deal would be the largest take-private in gaming since Microsoft’s $75bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Electronic Arts, with nearly 700m users and popular franchises like EA Sports FC, Madden NFL and Battlefield, is seeking new sources of growth. Going private could allow its new owners to cut costs, partly through the deployment of artificial intelligence.