The process of EA going private and selling to a 'Consortium' of investors, which includes the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Jared Kushner's Silver Lake, has just crossed its first hurdle. As initially reported by Stephen Totilo at Game File, EA's shareholders have voted to approve the sale of EA to the Consortium.
Now, the privatization sale has to be approved by government regulators, a process which, if Microsoft's journey to acquiring Activision Blizzard King is any indication, will take longer than a few months, considering that EA announced the sale back in September and shareholders have already approved it before the end of 2025.
Particularly because after one major video game industry acquisition made government regulators around the world pay more attention to the industry, we could see EA's deal face more scrutiny from global regulators. There have already been voices of concern from US senators in letters to the Secretary of the Treasury over the deal, alleging that the sale could allow for "the Saudi government’s ability to exert its influence through EA would offer the authoritarian regime an effective tool to project power worldwide."
"We urge you and the Committee to apply searching scrutiny to this unprecedented, proposed foreign privatization of a major American technology and entertainment company," the letter reads.
It's not just within the US that voices of concern over the deal are being raised. CWA Canada is also asking Canada's competition regulators to scrutinize the deal closely, with concerns shared for the Canadian developers EA employs at its Canadian-based studios, including Motive, EA Vancouver, and BioWare.
While the US senators' letter to the Secretary of the Treasury voiced concerns over foreign influence, CWA Canada's letter to the Canadian Competition Bureau shared more concerns about the job losses and layoffs that could result from the sale.
"Relatedly, the transaction could lead to reductions in jobs in Canadian labor markets. EA has said publicly that the deal would not lead to “immediate” layoffs, but with the deal being financed with US$20 billion in debt, some analysts suggest layoffs are one of the key ways the company will seek to cut costs in order to service its massive debt. Layoffs could further consolidate and concentrate existing labor markets for video game workers in Canada. Our concerns are compounded by the company’s history of recent layoffs: EA has laid off over 1,700 workers since 2023."
We're still a long way off from this deal going through; like the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard King deal, we'll likely be hearing about it for well over a year before it is finalized, if it does indeed end up happening.
If it doesn't go through, then we'll likely return to a status quo in the video game industry. If it does, then the Saudi Arabia PIF will own 93.4% of EA, with the other Consortium investors vying for the remaining 6.6%.
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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