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EA’s long‑running buyout saga is now nearing its conclusion. After clearing regulatory hurdles, the company says it now expects the merger to close next week, marking the end of EA’s time as a publicly traded company.
In an SEC filing published this week, EA confirmed that every regulatory body involved in reviewing the deal has now signed off. As of July 30th, all approvals have been obtained and now, EA expects to close the transaction by close of trading on August 4th.
This lines up with the timeline previously announced when the buyout was first proposed last year. EA always intended to wrap the deal up by the end of 2026, but things have run slightly ahead of schedule, with the deal receiving far less scrutiny than Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which suffered numerous delays due to on-going negotiations with regulators in the UK, EU and US.
Once the deal closes, EA will be owned by a group of private investors, including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. When this transition takes place, EA will no longer be a publicly traded company, and the company will be leveraged to pay off debt from loans used to fund the acquisition. Exactly what this will mean for the future of EA's games remains uncertain, but if you thought EA titles were overly monetised before, then you probably won't like what comes next.
KitGuru Says: We are used to hearing about EA's financials through quarterly earnings reports, but those insights are unlikely to be made public once EA becomes private once again. We'll have to rely on analyst estimates for that info moving forward.
