EA Going Private

https://www.ign.com/articles/ea-reportedly-closing-in-on-50-billion-deal-to-go-private

Good or bad?

I was sad to see so little discussion on this but the state of MUT doesn’t look like it has improved much.

Good or bad? Depends who you ask and how you look at it. Good for me because I bought in on EA after their stock tumbled from their poor quarterly report earlier this year. So in another 5-6 months when the deal gets done I stand to make 35-40%. Damn good for a year and yes I’m gloating a bit. Let me have my win.

Andrew Wilson will likely still be in charge. Just with a Prince to appease instead of shareholders. His model and EAs has always revolved around total control and I’m not surprised they continue to pursue measures they believe will help them achieve that. It has continuously paid off for them.

Silver Lake and more specifically Egon Durban has been eyeing EA for a long time. He and Andrew Wilson supposedly know each other pretty well. So I would assume they have some big plans and ideas to make a move like this. In the past Silver Lake has made big deals in tech like Dell and Broadcom. If this deal shapes up like those we could expect similar industry impacts. Could be exciting.

Affinity Partners isn’t much of a concern at 5% ownership. Seems like it’s just a way to cut Jared Kushner in. As he seems to be the link to the primary investor.

The Saudi prince Mohammed Bin Salman is the primary investor. He’s supposed to be a big gamer and he’s got serious $$$$$ to burn on whatever he wants.
 

Maybe that’s a better Madden?

Probably not but a recovering MUT NUT can dream.

Odog123 said:

I was sad to see so little discussion on this but the state of MUT doesn’t look like it has improved much.

Good or bad? Depends who you ask and how you look at it. Good for me because I bought in on EA after their stock tumbled from their poor quarterly report earlier this year. So in another 5-6 months when the deal gets done I stand to make 35-40%. Damn good for a year and yes I’m gloating a bit. Let me have my win.

Andrew Wilson will likely still be in charge. Just with a Prince to appease instead of shareholders. His model and EAs has always revolved around total control and I’m not surprised they continue to pursue measures they believe will help them achieve that. It has continuously paid off for them.

Silver Lake and more specifically Egon Durban has been eyeing EA for a long time. He and Andrew Wilson supposedly know each other pretty well. So I would assume they have some big plans and ideas to make a move like this. In the past Silver Lake has made big deals in tech like Dell and Broadcom. If this deal shapes up like those we could expect similar industry impacts. Could be exciting.

Affinity Partners isn’t much of a concern at 5% ownership. Seems like it’s just a way to cut Jared Kushner in. As he seems to be the link to the primary investor.

The Saudi prince Mohammed Bin Salman is the primary investor. He’s supposed to be a big gamer and he’s got serious $$$$$ to burn on whatever he wants.
 

Maybe that’s a better Madden?

Probably not but a recovering MUT NUT can dream.

Can't hate the player, hate the game. GG on the stock pick win! Private equity’s track record usually points toward aggressive cost-cutting and margin expansion — strategies that tend to favor investors over employees or customers. It’s not always doom and gloom, but product quality and innovation often take a back seat when the focus shifts entirely to efficiency and returns.

If the reports are accurate and Mohammed bin Salman is the primary backer, that adds another dimension. His wealth and interest in gaming could mean a willingness to invest heavily, but given EA’s existing monetization model, it’s easy to imagine an even greater emphasis on pay-to-win mechanics and revenue extraction from core player bases.

I'm not expecting any player benefits from this.

BeefBalls said:

Can't hate the player, hate the game. GG on the stock pick win! Private equity’s track record usually points toward aggressive cost-cutting and margin expansion — strategies that tend to favor investors over employees or customers. It’s not always doom and gloom, but product quality and innovation often take a back seat when the focus shifts entirely to efficiency and returns.

If the reports are accurate and Mohammed bin Salman is the primary backer, that adds another dimension. His wealth and interest in gaming could mean a willingness to invest heavily, but given EA’s existing monetization model, it’s easy to imagine an even greater emphasis on pay-to-win mechanics and revenue extraction from core player bases.

I'm not expecting any player benefits from this.

Agreed. This move isn’t about providing better quality products or a better experience for us. Except for maybe the prince.
 

This move puts EA and whoever owns it in a better position to capitalize on the monetization of all games/content they produce or own. As a private company there are a lot less regulations and less oversight to deal with. As a result and as you mentioned I think it’s likely they lean further into their current monetization model. That may even be one of the driving factors behind this deal.
 

When a large chunk of your company’s revenue is essentially produced through unregulated gambling… it makes a lot of sense.
 

We end up with a nice candy coating of pay to win wrapped around a crunchy nuggety center of chance, happenstance and outright gambling. Sounds delicious! 😋

Odog123 said:

I was sad to see so little discussion on this but the state of MUT doesn’t look like it has improved much.

Good or bad? Depends who you ask and how you look at it. Good for me because I bought in on EA after their stock tumbled from their poor quarterly report earlier this year. So in another 5-6 months when the deal gets done I stand to make 35-40%. Damn good for a year and yes I’m gloating a bit. Let me have my win.

Andrew Wilson will likely still be in charge. Just with a Prince to appease instead of shareholders. His model and EAs has always revolved around total control and I’m not surprised they continue to pursue measures they believe will help them achieve that. It has continuously paid off for them.

Silver Lake and more specifically Egon Durban has been eyeing EA for a long time. He and Andrew Wilson supposedly know each other pretty well. So I would assume they have some big plans and ideas to make a move like this. In the past Silver Lake has made big deals in tech like Dell and Broadcom. If this deal shapes up like those we could expect similar industry impacts. Could be exciting.

Affinity Partners isn’t much of a concern at 5% ownership. Seems like it’s just a way to cut Jared Kushner in. As he seems to be the link to the primary investor.

The Saudi prince Mohammed Bin Salman is the primary investor. He’s supposed to be a big gamer and he’s got serious $$$$$ to burn on whatever he wants.
 

Maybe that’s a better Madden?

Probably not but a recovering MUT NUT can dream.

Good write-up, man. Love seeing someone dig deeper than the usual “EA sucks” posts.

You’re spot on that control has always been EA’s favorite game mode, but the real story might be what happens after they go private. There’s a long history of big companies thinking going private will free them up, but this deal includes $20B in debt as part of the $55B price tag.

Personally, I think the only real way to start fixing Madden is by moving to a new engine altogether.

The biggest problem right now isn’t the content, it’s the engine. Frostbite was never built for sports sims, and every year they just stack new features on top of old code. That’s why we keep seeing janky tackles, delayed menus, animation locks, weird AI, and the same bugs year after year.

Madden’s basically running on decade-old foundation code duct-taped together for annual releases. To truly fix it, EA would need to gut and rebuild core systems; physics, animation, UI, and that’s not something you pull off in a one-year cycle.

We’d have to go through some rough waters before we ever see anything resembling utopia.

Mythomaniac said:

Good write-up, man. Love seeing someone dig deeper than the usual “EA sucks” posts.

You’re spot on that control has always been EA’s favorite game mode, but the real story might be what happens after they go private. There’s a long history of big companies thinking going private will free them up, but this deal includes $20B in debt as part of the $55B price tag.

Personally, I think the only real way to start fixing Madden is by moving to a new engine altogether.

The biggest problem right now isn’t the content, it’s the engine. Frostbite was never built for sports sims, and every year they just stack new features on top of old code. That’s why we keep seeing janky tackles, delayed menus, animation locks, weird AI, and the same bugs year after year.

Madden’s basically running on decade-old foundation code duct-taped together for annual releases. To truly fix it, EA would need to gut and rebuild core systems; physics, animation, UI, and that’s not something you pull off in a one-year cycle.

We’d have to go through some rough waters before we ever see anything resembling utopia.

I don’t think these guys are logging in and seeing those problems. They are examining numbers and those look pretty good. Gamers and developers don’t run things. At this point I think the NFL is as responsible, maybe more so, for the state of Madden and MUT. As controlling as EA is they got nothing on the NFL. EA was confident enough in Madden they were willing to sacrifice their exclusive deal because I can only assume they think they would ultimately profit more without paying the NFL and/or without their oversight. Despite the loses they would obviously take.

As gamers playing EA games we understand how stale and/or outdated some of their games/content are. EA Sports may be somewhat disproportionate in this regard. Unfortunately for us not only are EA and the NFL happy to rinse and repeat as long as possible but many users seem happy enough to as well. Investors and EA seem to believe the Monetization Model of Ultimate Team still has a lot more juice for the squeeze.

At this point I think it’s unlikely Madden gets a new engine or really even a redesigned product until the next generation of consoles. At some point they will have to in order to stay relevant and competitive, right?

Also I did my numbers wrong on the EA stock. I bought in early February when the price was in the 120s. I don’t know why I thought it was closer to 150 but I’m not complaining about the money. Just the game and still gloating apparently.

As everyone suggests private equity often means cost cutting, stripping it down or making something more efficient or profitable. EA, Andrew Wilson, is already well down that road. Obviously it will continue but as a result of that, the details and the players involved I believe their strategy will revolve more around maximizing profitability through acquisition, their “blockbusters” and ultimately mostly through monetization of live content. I’ve got my fingers crossed for a little innovation and creativity to get spurred here. Rather than simply cost reduction, margins and other typical bean counter strategies. Some initial reshuffling and workforce reduction wouldn’t be surprising though. AI took our yobs!

Competitive players should be happy. We might see big glitzy fancy competitive Madden tournaments overseas with much larger payouts. That’s very few people though. 

The bold are long gone. Only the bat shit remain.

Best case? Madden drops exclusivity, rebuilds from the ground up, and finally becomes a true football sim driven by competition, creativity, and actual love for the game instead of microtransactions.

But EA builds to its audience, and your daily MUT bro can’t help but take the bait. They know exactly which names will make people crack open their wallets. 86-overall Legends going for over a million coins the first week just because they’re Elway, Revis, or T.O.

I remember when Madden was fun. My friends and I would get together, start a franchise, and try to meet in the Super Bowl every year. Then couch multiplayer disappeared, then the one-license-per-profile rule hit, then MUT and Madden Points took over, and the rest is what we’ve got today.

The grind gets old. Your roster’s only as good as the latest drop, and online play feels toxic more often than not.

Maybe I’m waiting for something that can’t come back. Maybe the best version of Madden is already behind us, or maybe it doesn’t really matter what we want anymore.

Some new info. Maybe casting some doubt. 

https://www.marketbeat.com/instant-alerts/filing-electronic-arts-inc-ea-shares-bought-by-vanguard-personalized-indexing-management-llc-2025-10-14/

Just typing into the infinite abyss again

https://www.afr.com/technology/ea-s-australian-chief-finds-his-salary-in-the-political-firing-line-20251015-p5n2nj

This article outlines some highlights of the recent events. AFR is Australian financial review. It better explains the sale of stock by Andrew Wilson and the CFO. My worries about them unloading stock are not that high yet.

I don’t believe Silver Lake or the PIF fully want to run EA. They want money and oversight but not all that other crap. So they need an executive management team. The one already installed has experience, knowledge and a track record. Not something to just throw away Willy Nilly.

With all the political dumpster fires currently burning I think the Saudi PIFs involvement in this deal will likely fall short of the high priority list. Plus as the article points out Kushner is tied to Trump and that (whether you are a Trump supporter or not) will probably increase the odds of the deal going through but the Democratic Party could complicate things if they decide they want to.

I’m watching other game development companies a bit as well. If there are ulterior motives I think they would be business motived and it might result in at least one additional game development company getting involved at some point. Could end up seeing that even if it’s on the up and up.

inshallah may the power of allah bring old pack odds back

Two damn good quality articles on the EA buyout. Well done to them both.

https://simplywall.st/stocks/us/media/nasdaq-ea/electronic-arts/news/is-there-an-opportunity-in-ea-stock-after-its-15-rally-in-20/amp

https://www.marketbeat.com/originals/eas-55-billion-deal-spurs-a-shake-up-in-the-gaming-sector/

Also at least 4 EA executives/insiders unloaded stock on the 15th. Curious, don’t you think?  

They are talking about a group of banks financing it and none of those bankers have a problem with a potential overvaluation? Hmm…

Who’s thinking short already?

Odog123 said:

Two damn good quality articles on the EA buyout. Well done to them both.

https://simplywall.st/stocks/us/media/nasdaq-ea/electronic-arts/news/is-there-an-opportunity-in-ea-stock-after-its-15-rally-in-20/amp

https://www.marketbeat.com/originals/eas-55-billion-deal-spurs-a-shake-up-in-the-gaming-sector/

Also at least 4 EA executives/insiders unloaded stock on the 15th. Curious, don’t you think?  

They are talking about a group of banks financing it and none of those bankers have a problem with a potential overvaluation? Hmm…

Who’s thinking short already?

Are you a journalist?

This is some very interesting bit of information.

Kudos :)

Mythomaniac said:

Are you a journalist?

This is some very interesting bit of information.

Kudos :)

I’m not a journalist but I’ll take the compliment. Just the product of an obsessive mind.
 

CEO sold more stock.
 

https://www.investing.com/news/insider-trading-news/electronic-arts-ceo-wilson-sells-1m-in-shares-93CH-4300504

Info from EAs earnings today. Below is from the article linked. Once again it’s Madden and MUT live content/services keeping EAs predatory monetization model thriving.

“According to EA, wins from the latest quarter, which marked EA’s second quarter of its fiscal 2026, included: “Madden NFL 26” fueling year-over-year net bookings growth, “Apex Legends” returning to double digit sales growth, and an increase in “EA Sports FC 26 HD” net bookings compared to last year’s title, “after adjusting for differences in deluxe edition content timing.’”

https://variety.com/2025/gaming/news/electronic-arts-sales-down-earnings-private-1236563695/