Battlefield publisher EA has confirmed that it has reached an agreement for its acquisition to the tune of $55 billion, noting that it would be transitioning from a publicly traded company to a private company. EA has been a publicly traded company since 1989, so it’s been more than three decades. Moving back to a private company is a big deal for this reason alone.

EA going private after more than 30 years is a big deal for another reason – the investors. One of the main investors is the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund. Another is Affinity Partners, which was founded by President Donald Trump’s Son-in-law, Jared Kushner. The third major investor is Silver Lake. The first two are likely what is going to draw the most attention from the public. The Affinity Partners link for obvious reasons. The PIF may be a little less so if you don’t pay much attention to geopolitics. All of that aside, EA is still technically in talks for the acquisition and expects that it will be finalized in the 2027 fiscal year.

The EA acquisition is still just an agreement, for now

Whether you’re indifferent or against this acquisition, it’s worth keeping in mind that the acquisition is still just an agreement at this stage. That doesn’t mean it won’t go through, and it doesn’t mean it will. All it means is that for now, it’s not final. EA expects the acquisition to be finalized sometime after the 2027 fiscal year, as it will need to go through regulatory approvals. That’s at least September of next year.

Just as Microsoft did with its acquisition of Zenimax and Activision Blizzard. Just as Sony did for Bungie. All that being said, if Microsoft were able to clinch that Activision Blizzard deal, it doesn’t seem like much of an issue for EA’s acquisition to go forward. Time will tell.

Once the acquisition is finalized, EA says that Andrew Wilson will remain on as CEO. It also confirms that the headquarters will remain in Redwood City, California. As of right now, there are no changes to EA games or the gameplay experiences to be expected. However, that could very well change once things are finalized.

EA’s announcement comes just under two weeks before its big launch of Battlefield 6. The next highly anticipated title in EA’s long-running first-person shooter franchise. It’s hard to imagine that this announcement isn’t going to have some sort of impact on that game’s sales.
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Source: ndroidheadlines.com