EA is now owned by Saudi Arabian PIF and Trump’s son-in-law’s investment firm

Electronic Arts is now owned by the Saudi Arabian Private Investment Fund, Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners and Silver Lake, as one of the biggest publishers in gaming is taken off the public stock market.

Naturally everyone involved has some very gushing quotes about one another, so let’s cherry pick.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson – who recently took a massive $30 million increase to his bonus for the successes of Battlefield 6 and laying off lots of people who worked on Battlefield 6 – said that these new partners “share out vision and ambition”. PIF Deputy Governor Turqi Alnowaiser noted that “Entertainment and sports are key areas of strategic focus for PIF,” while Silver Lake CEO Egon Durban waited absolutely no time to start touting “what AI can do to enhance game development and player experience.”

Jared Kushner said something very bland, but is no doubt happy that this gambit worked when the FIFA Forward Enterprise just fell flat for his brother.

Having been announced last September and then approved by shareholders in December, the deal had been intended to complete by the end of June, but was held up by a little over a month while waiting for regulatory approval. I’m completely certain that Kushner’s father-in-law being the US president was absolutely not a factor in this deal being approved as a massive US company is now majority owned by a foreign country.

The PIF and other Saudi investment funds have been prolific in spreading the country’s wealth into various other industries, both to diversify the country’s income to be more than just about selling oil, but also with the side effect of ‘washing’ this investment and the country’s reputation through other businesses. ‘Sportswashing’ is the more commonly known term, but the PIF has also taken stakes in many gaming companies around the world. They also own Niantic, have stakes in Riot Games, Nintendo, Take Two, Capcom, Embracer, Nexon, and Koei Tecmo. Prior to deciding to buy EA outright, the PIF already held a 10% stake in the company.

Per Alnowaiser’s comments above, this now gives the PIF a major route back to the world of sports, with EA Sports having the biggest games for football, Formula 1, NFL, NHL and UFC. There are also concerns about how Saudi Arabia could start to exert more soft power through this acquisition than they previously did with minority stakes. SNK, owned by the PIF adjacent Misk Foundation, crudely shoved state-backed Al-Nassr FC player Cristiano Ronaldo into Fatal Fury, in a bare-faced effort to merge investments, and while I’m not expecting Ronaldo to suddenly be the face of Battlefield 6 or something, perhaps the tenor and tone of The Sims shifts to downplay the LGBTQ+ representation and community that has built up around that series, or nudge the future of Mass Effect and other future titles in certain directions.

We’ll have to wait and see. Similarly, we’ll have to see if awareness about this buyout and the people and countries involved goes on to have a meaningful impact on EA’s bottom line.

Source: EA

Tags: EA, PIF, Saudi Arabia