Overview

• A buyer group reported by the Wall Street Journal includes Silver Lake, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners.
• If finalized at around $50 billion, the transaction would likely be the largest leveraged buyout on record.
• EA shares were briefly halted and then surged roughly 14% to 16% following the reports, with other gaming stocks also gaining.
• EA, Silver Lake, the PIF and Affinity Partners did not provide comment in response to inquiries.
• The talks come after EA guided second-quarter net bookings below expectations in July, with FC 26 launching this week and Battlefield 6 slated for the current fiscal year.