Pecohub Video games maker Electronic Arts is nearing a $50bn deal to go private with a consortium including Silver Lake and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners, in one of the largest leveraged buyouts of all time.
A deal could be announced as early as Monday, provided it does not face any last-minute hurdles, said three people familiar with the matter. EA is likely to be valued at as much as $50bn, they added.
EA, which has about 700mn user accounts, has one of the richest content libraries among its competitors, including the titles EA Sports FC, Madden NFL, and Battlefield. JPMorgan is arranging a debt financing package worth in excess of $20bn for the deal, the people added.
The deal marks one of the largest take-private transactions in history, topping in dollar value the $45bn buyout of Texas utility group TXU in 2007.
However, including debt, that deal totalled nearly $70bn in enterprise value.
Silver Lake is one of the most prolific private equity firms, having recently taken private Endeavor, the talent and sports group that owns Ultimate Fighting Championship.
It is also participating in the group of investors splitting TikTok’s US operations from ByteDance in a deal brokered by the Trump administration.
Kushner acted as one of Trump’s top advisers in his first term and helped broker the Abraham Accords, a normalisation of economic relations between many Arab countries and Israel, building deep ties in the region.
PIF already ranks among one of EA’s largest shareholders. The sovereign wealth fund, with more than $925bn of assets, has been a significant investor in the gaming sector. Its Savvy Games unit acquired Pokémon Go, the hit mobile app, as part of a $3.5bn deal earlier this year.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the deal. Shares in EA jumped about 15 per cent to $192.83 on the news, giving the California-based group a market value of roughly $48bn.
The stock had been up about 17 per cent over the year to date before the news.
Investors have already begun signalling to JPMorgan their interest in providing the debt needed to take EA private, which would allow the largest US bank to start building an order book.
