Shares of Electronic Arts ($EA) were quickly halted after a report in the Wall Street Journal suggesting the company could be taken private.
Electronic Arts is one of the big dogs in gaming, best known for its sports franchises like FIFA (now EA Sports FC) and Madden, alongside hits like Apex Legends, Battlefield, and The Sims. The business is split between live services — where the real money is, thanks to microtransactions, downloadable content, and in-game cosmetics — and full-game sales.
They’ve built a steady cash machine on annualized sports titles and recurring revenue from Ultimate Team modes, which are essentially digital trading cards driving billions. On the other side, EA leans into big multiplayer shooters and life-sim games with long tails. Mobile also factors in, though not as heavily as rivals.
The report suggests a $50 leveraged buyout including Silver Lake and Saudi Arabia’s PIF as soon as next week. That compares to its $43 billion pre-report value.
“Discussions on price are still underway but EA could be valued at as much as $50 billion, two of the people said,” in the report.
Update: Shares are now trading again and are up 16% which puts them right around the $50 billion range..
According to the WSJ, it would be the largest leveraged buyout ever. Here are the previous record holders:
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TXU / Energy Future Holdings (2007) — ~$45 billion
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Equity Office Properties (2007) — ~$38–39 billion
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HCA (Hospital Corporation of America) (2006) — ~$32–33 billion
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RJR Nabisco (1989) — ~$31.1 billion
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First Data (2007) — ~$29 billion
Note the dates..
