The sale of gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA) for $55bn (£41bn) to a group of buyers including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) has been finalised. The American company is best known for publishing blockbuster games including EA FC, formerly known as Fifa, The Sims and Mass Effect, and the investors are taking EA private so its public shares will be bought and the company will no longer trade on a stock exchange.
EA's football titles, from Fifa to EA FC, have sold more than 325 million copies since the first release in 1993. The deal is thought to be the largest leveraged buyout in history, meaning a significant part of the purchase is being funded with borrowed money that the company will have to repay.
As well as the $36bn it has already put into the deal, PIF needs to borrow $20bn from investment bankers JPMorgan to close it, with the business taking on the debt. How that debt is repaid and what it means for EA as a business has been the subject of extensive speculation among journalists and analysts.
Bloomberg's Jason Schreier surmised it could lead to
