Saudi wealth fund weighs merging $55B-buyout EA with Savvy Games
What's the deal? Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIFDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →) is considering combining Electronic ArtsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → with Savvy GamesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to create one of the world's biggest gaming firms, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The deal would bring blockbuster titles like Madden NFL and Pokemon Go under one roof.
What's the endgame? PIF executives want better coordination across their gaming assets, potentially giving the fund a single vehicle through which to make acquisitions, develop games, and exploit intellectual property across the $214 billion industry.
Why now? The PIF led last year's record $55 billion buyout of EA — maker of Battlefield and The Sims — which recently closed. Savvy, meanwhile, has spent years assembling its own empire, using $38 billion from the PIF to buy Scopely for $4.9 billion and Niantic's games business for about $3.5 billion.
No final decisions have been made. A deal is unlikely until Savvy completes its $6 billion acquisition of Chinese mobile gaming business Moonton.
Why it matters: The combination could bolster EA's ambitions in mobile gaming, where it has struggled. Analysts have questioned EA's decision to cancel the mobile games it acquired through its $2.1 billion deal for Glu Mobile in 2021; its strength has historically been console and PC titles.
The hire: Savvy chief executive officer Brian Ward left the firm earlier this month, with PIF Deputy Governor Turqi Alnowaiser taking over as interim CEO. Alnowaiser, the fund's head of international investments, was the public face for the PIF's EA negotiations; Ward has said he wasn't involved in that transaction.
What could go wrong? Any deal would face regulatory hurdles. Large gaming mergers, such as Microsoft's $69 billion purchase of Activision BlizzardDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, are often subject to antitrust inquiries.
The signal: Under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, an avid gamer, Saudi Arabia has made gaming a key peg of its Vision 2030 diversification strategy. But the PIF has recently pulled back on riskier bets in favour of more disciplined investing, tightening its grip on portfolio companies — a shift this potential merger would embody.
Read more: Bloomberg
Image credit: image generated by AI
