Media: Electronic Arts will buy back $50bn worth of its shares from investors and become a private company
In the media there was information about a large-scale reorganisation of the structure of Electronic Arts - the largest American game publisher, which owns such franchises as The Sims, Battlefield, Need for Speed, as well as numerous popular sports simulators.
Here's What We Know
According to The Wall Street Journal, Electronic Arts management is at an advanced stage of negotiations to buy back its shares from investors and take the company from public to private.
For this purpose, the deal involves investment funds Silver Lake and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, which already owns more than 10% of EA shares.
We are talking about a share buyback worth around $50bn, with EA's market capitalisation now estimated at around $42-43bn.
If the agreement is reached, it will be one of the largest financial transactions in the history of the gaming industry, although it will not reach the figures of the famous merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard (about $70 billion).
The market reacted positively to the news of changes in EA and the value of the company rose by almost 15%.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
