U.S. game company Electronic Arts (EA) said on the 29th (local time) that it agreed to sell equity for $52.5 billion (73.5 trillion won) to an investor consortium that includes Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth funds (PIF). After the sale, EA will become a private company.
The sale will proceed via a leveraged buyout (LBO — acquiring a company by borrowing money secured by the target's asset as collateral). According to Reuters, this is the largest deal of its kind in Wall Street history among merger-and-acquisition (M&A) transactions.
The acquisition consortium includes Affinity Partners and Silver Lake in addition to the Saudi sovereign wealth funds, which already own 10% of EA's equity. Affinity Partners is an investment firm founded by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump. Silver Lake is a tech-focused private equity firm. It had previously agreed to take part in acquiring the U.S. unit of Chinese video platform TikTok.
Meanwhile, EA is known for first-person shooter (FPS) "Battlefield," as well as sports game series such as "FIFA" and "Madden NFL."