{"id":86400,"date":"2026-07-23T12:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/?p=86400"},"modified":"2026-07-23T12:38:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:38:24","slug":"ea-sale-to-saudi-arabia-clears-a-major-hurdle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/?p=86400","title":{"rendered":"EA Sale To Saudi Arabia Clears A Major Hurdle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The proposed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/unpacking-eas-55-billion-sale-to-go-private-what-does-it-all-mean\/1100-6535168\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/unpacking-eas-55-billion-sale-to-go-private-what-does-it-all-mean\/1100-6535168\/\">sale of Electronic Arts<\/a> to an investor consortium led by Saudi Arabia&#8217;s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has cleared a major hurdle in the closing process. The European Commission <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/mex_26_1675\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/mex_26_1675\">announced<\/a> today, July 23, that it has approved the merger, saying the deal does not raise competition concerns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This was the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/saudi-arabias-ea-takeover-reportedly-set-to-clear-eu-hurdle\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/saudi-arabias-ea-takeover-reportedly-set-to-clear-eu-hurdle\/\">expected result<\/a>, and now it&#8217;s official. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The $55 billion deal, which is structured as a leveraged buyout (LBO), comes with billions in debt for EA. This has led many to believe EA will implement a dramatic cost-cutting effort to help service the debt, and that this could include mass layoffs, studio closures, and game cancellations. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That remains to be seen, however, and no major changes are expected to be announced until the deal formally closes. <\/p>\n<figure data-wp-interactive=\"core\/image\" class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-ref-id=\"1830166\" data-wp-on--click=\"actions.core.image.showLightbox\" style=\"cursor: zoom-in\" height=\"601\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/EASale-1.png?w=636\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1830166\" \/>Battlefield is among EA&#8217;s top properties. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/insider-gaming.com\/bioware-staff-worried-about-studios-future\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">A report from Insider Gaming<\/a>\u00a0cited multiple anonymous sources within BioWare stating they believe BioWare could be one of the first companies to see cuts under the new ownership.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019ve been doing it since last year, but I\u2019m making sure I have a portfolio ready and feelers out for other jobs,\u201d a current<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The proposed sale of Electronic Arts to an investor consortium led by Saudi Arabia&#8217;s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has cleared a major hurdle in the closing process. The European Commission announced today, July 23, that it has approved the merger, saying the deal does not raise competition concerns. This was the expected result, and now&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":86402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-external"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86400"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86403,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86400\/revisions\/86403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/86402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vgvote.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}