The news of EA going private and getting acquired by a Saudi-led consortium was nothing short of shocking. This acquisition is a gigantic $55 billion leveraged buyout shared by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), private equity firm Silver Lake, and Miami investment firm Affinity Partners. President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was also involved in the deal, so this whole ordeal is certainly contentious. But in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EA assured its employees they have nothing to worry about, for now.
This specific discussion around layoffs in the filing was spotted by Stephen Totilo on Bluesky. Let’s take a closer look at some of the phrasing in that filing and what it means for EA’s work culture.
“There will be no immediate changes to your job, team, or daily work, as a result of this transaction.”
As initial readers of the above quote were quick to point out, the phrase “no immediate changes” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. This phrasing may calm the nerves of EA employees in the short term, but it doesn’t rule out layoffs, restructuring, downsizing, or whatever other clean, corporate word you can think of for getting fired.
Will EA’s Work Culture Drastically Change?
In the same document discussed above, EA states that its mission and commitment to players will not change. We’ll see how that plays out in the coming months and years, but what about the effects on employees right now?
The filing does promise no changes “as a result of this announcement,” but it also notes that the ESPP (Employee Stock Purchase Program) will be adjusted. EA’s no longer a publicly traded company, meaning employees can no longer rely on stock growth for long-term wealth building. Instead, equity will be converted to cash rewards at the locked-in price of $210. That’s great for certainty, as there’s no more volatility, but it cuts off the possibility for future upside.
Then there’s also the leveraged buyout part that comes into play. This isn’t just $55 billion in cash sitting in a vault; it’s a heavily financed, leveraged debt. That means EA’s earnings will be used to service those massive payments. Doing so will require reliable and predictable revenue streams, and cost-cutting measures like layoffs will be taken sooner or later. There will be workforce changes; it’s inevitable.
In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, Fiona Sperry, former head of Criterion Games, expressed the idea that deadlines often limit vision and creativity when a public company has to answer to shareholders. She says that EA’s incredibly creative teams might get the opportunity to take risks and innovate with more freedom.
That’s certainly possible, and it’s a positive way of looking at it. But there’s also the chance that we’ll see more aggressive monetization and a focus on more risk-free releases like EA FC and Madden. Smaller, less immediately profitable projects might starve of resources. How EA employees feel about that is something only they can tell you.
