A report from The Wall Street Journal reveals that EA is closing in on a deal to become a private company, with private equity investors including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and the firm Silver Lake putting up a massive $50 billion to buy out the company. According to The WSJ, if this buyout were to go through, it would go down as the "largest leveraged buyout ever."
Details on the deal are currently unclear, and of course, we don't necessarily know if it'll go through or not. Large-stakes deals involving Saudi Arabia and its growing interests in the videogame industry have gone under at the last minute for what remain unknown reasons.
It's also not the first time that we've seen the idea of EA changing in ownership getting tossed around, as there were reports of Disney potentially looking at acquiring EA in 2023, though nothing ever came of the idea in part due to chief executive officer Bob Iger not wanting to invest so much in that direction.
Still, if this deal that the WSJ has reported goes through and EA becomes a private company, it could potentially mean a massive shift for one of the videogame industry's largest publishers and developers. Since the WSJ's report broke, EA's stock has reportedly jumped up 15%.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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