Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund bought game maker Electronic Arts in perhaps the largest leveraged buyout in history.
The $55 billion deal — part-funded with $20 billion borrowed against EA itself — buys Riyadh a profitable business and control of some of the biggest franchises in the world’s biggest entertainment industry.
But the move is “not purely economic,” one expert told the BBC. The soccer franchise EA Sports FC alone gives the PIF a relationship with 20,000 players and 750 teams worldwide, a useful soft-power asset.
Unlike the fund’s previous attempts to buy national prestige, though, like LIV Golf or the Saudi Super League, EA can reasonably be expected to make money, although the debt piled on may hamper its earnings.