Saudi PIF Nears EU Clearance for Its 55 Billion Dollar Electronic Arts Takeover
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and its partners are set to win European Union clearance for their 55 billion dollar acquisition of the US game maker Electronic Arts, according to Reuters, moving one of the largest buyouts on record closer to completion. The bloc’s competition regulators are expected to clear the deal at the preliminary stage of their review under the EU foreign-subsidies rules, without opening an in-depth investigation, per Reuters, with that decision due by 30 July and a separate clearance under EU merger rules expected unconditionally by 22 July.
The take-private, announced on 29 September 2025, values Electronic Arts at 210 dollars a share in cash, a 25 percent premium to the 168.32 dollars at which the shares last traded before the deal was disclosed, according to the company, which calls it the largest all-cash sponsor take-private in history. The consortium is led by the Public Investment Fund, which is rolling over its existing 9.9 percent stake, alongside the private-equity firm Silver Lake and Affinity Partners. It is financed with about 36 billion dollars of equity from the group and 20 billion dollars of debt fully committed by JPMorgan Chase, of which about 18 billion dollars is expected to be funded at completion, per Electronic Arts.
The numbers frame the scale. On our calculation the 55 billion dollar price values Electronic Arts at about 7.3 times its roughly 7.5 billion dollars of net revenue in fiscal 2025, and the 210 dollar cash offer sits a quarter above the pre-deal price. For the Public Investment Fund, the transaction ranks among the largest cross-border technology bets by any sovereign investor, extending a gaming and entertainment push that also includes its Savvy Games Group.
For the Gulf, the deal is a marker of how far regional sovereign capital now reaches into Western technology. It also tests the receptiveness of Western regulators to that capital: the European review under the foreign-subsidies rules, designed to scrutinise state-backed buyers, is the gate the consortium is now clearing, while further approvals, including in the United States, remain pending before completion.
Why it matters: A clean EU sign-off would remove a central regulatory hurdle to a landmark purchase of a global technology company by a Gulf-led group, reinforcing the growing weight of GCC sovereign funds in international deal-making at a time when their scale and diversification ambitions are reshaping capital flows. For the region, it signals that state-backed acquisitions of strategic Western assets can pass foreign-subsidy scrutiny, a template relevant well beyond this single deal.
Outlook: The two EU decisions are expected by 22 and 30 July. Electronic Arts had originally targeted completion in the first quarter of its 2027 fiscal year, the quarter that ended on 30 June, so with the reviews still running the timing now turns on the remaining approvals, including in the United States. Under the merger agreement the transaction carries an outside date of 28 September 2026, which can be extended if regulatory clearances are still pending, subject to customary conditions.
Sources: Reuters; Electronic Arts.
