The EU Commission has cleared the $55 billion acquisition of Electronic Arts led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
The executive body approved the acquisition under the EU Merger Regulation.
It concluded that the transaction “would not raise competition concerns, given its limited impact on competition in the markets where the companies are active. The notified transaction was examined under the normal merger review procedure.”
As the review procedure states: “In assessing proposed mergers, the Commission considers whether they can be expected to significantly impede effective competition in the EU.
“If they do not, they are approved unconditionally. If they do, and no commitments suitable to remove the impediment are proposed by the merging firms, problematic mergers must be prohibited to protect businesses and consumers from higher prices or a more limited choice of goods or services.”
The procedure continues: “Proposed mergers may be prohibited, for example, if the merging parties are major competitors or if the merger would otherwise significantly weaken effective competition in the market, in particular by creating or strengthening a dominant player.”
In September 2025, a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) offered to acquire EA.
The consortium includes Silver Lake and Affinity Partners and is backed by over $20 billion in debt financing from JPMorgan.
After the deal was announced, EA assured fans it would “maintain creative control” and “creative freedom” under the PIF-led consortium.
“The Consortium believes in our vision, our leadership and our focus on creating games, stories, and content that reflect a range of experiences and delivering them to our global player community,” the company said. “They’re investing in the creativity that defines EA.”
EA shareholders have approved the acquisition, which is now under regulatory review. If approved, it will be the largest leveraged buyout in history.
Last October, the president of the Communication Workers of America (CWA) called for a comprehensive review of the buyout.
In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), Claude Cummings Jr. called for regulators to take “all necessary steps to prevent foreign and private equity interests from destabilising the American video game industry.”
Earlier this year, US lawmakers asked the FTC to “thoroughly” review the acquisition, given its scale and EA’s “current dominance over the domestic video game labour market.”
“We respectfully urge the Commission to conduct a thorough investigation into the labour market consequences of this proposed acquisition, including EA’s existing wage-setting power, the likelihood of post-transaction layoffs, the degree of labour-market concentration in relevant geographic and occupational markets, and the role of cross-ownership in shaping labour outcomes.
“Workers deserve a fair, competitive marketplace where their skills are valued.”
