EU Clears $55 Billion Saudi Takeover of EA, Skipping the Drama That Hit Microsoft's Activision Deal

The European Commission has signed off on Saudi Arabia's $55 billion acquisition of Electronic Arts, ruling that the deal poses no threat to competition in the EU. It's a major green light for one of the largest buyouts in gaming history, and notably, one that arrived with far less friction than a similar case just a few years ago.

In its ruling, the Commission stated it had approved "the acquisition of sole control of Electronic Arts Inc. of the US by the Public Investment Fund ('PIF') of Saudi Arabia" under EU Merger Regulation. The reasoning was straightforward: the deal, in the Commission's words, "would not raise competition concerns, given its limited impact on competition in the markets where the companies are active." The transaction went through the standard merger review process, according to the ruling, cited by PC Gamer via Rock Paper Shotgun.

That's a notably smoother path than the one Microsoft faced when it tried to buy Activision Blizzard. That deal triggered a lengthy, in-depth EU investigation, and Microsoft only got approval after agreeing to specific behavioral commitments to address regulators' concerns. Nothing like that appears to have been necessary here.

Part of the difference comes down to the structure of the deals themselves. Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard was a merger between two companies both active in gaming, raising obvious questions about market concentration. The EA acquisition works differently: PIF is buying the company outright and taking it private, rather than folding it into an existing gaming operation. That distinction matters for antitrust purposes, since the core question in a competition review is whether a deal reduces competitive rivals in a given market, not whether the buyer is trustworthy or financially sound.

That said, taking EA private isn't without its own risks, just not the kind that fall under the Commission's jurisdiction. The deal will load EA with roughly $20 billion in debt to finance the buyout, a substantial obligation for a company of its size. But debt load and financial structuring aren't part of what a merger regulator evaluates. The EU's review is narrowly about market competition, and on that specific question, the Commission found nothing to object to.

Pushback in Washington, but little traction

The EU's approval doesn't mean the deal is free of scrutiny everywhere. Game developers and members of the US Congress have raised what they've called "profound concern" about the acquisition, urging the Federal Trade Commission to closely examine the takeover before letting it proceed.

Whether that scrutiny actually materializes is another matter. The current FTC chair, Andrew Ferguson, is a consistent ally of President Donald Trump, and Trump has a well-documented close relationship with Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia. Bin Salman also chairs the Public Investment Fund, the very entity that would end up owning more than 93% of EA if the deal closes. Adding another layer of proximity to the deal, the acquisition is being backed in part by an investment firm founded by Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law.

None of those relationships change the legal standards regulators are supposed to apply, but they help explain why observers don't expect the FTC to slow this deal down the way EU regulators once slowed Microsoft's.

What happens next

With the European Commission's blessing secured, one of the biggest regulatory checkpoints for the EA deal is now cleared. The acquisition would hand near-total ownership of one of the industry's largest publishers, the company behind franchises like Battlefield, The Sims, and EA Sports FC, to a sovereign wealth fund controlled by the Saudi government. That kind of ownership shift, and the debt EA will carry as a result, will shape the company's direction for years regardless of how any remaining regulatory questions in the US play out. For now, though, the path toward closing the deal looks a lot clearer than it did before Brussels weighed in.