After saying its $55 billion acquisition of EA in September 2025, the European Union is reportedly set to approve Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund (PIF) buy on the finish of July, based on new reporting from Reuters.
As Reuters reported on July 17, individuals conversant in the deal mentioned Saudi Arabia’s PIF will safe the EU’s approval below EU subsidy guidelines. Which means, after the EU completes its preliminary evaluate below its Overseas Subsidies Regulation (FSR) on July 22, the acquisition will reportedly be cleared to undergo on July 30. All instructed, the deal is anticipated to win unconditional EU clearance below merger guidelines.
The FSR is supposed to stop non-European subsidies from distorting competitors within the EU’s inner market. Nonetheless, as Reuters reported earlier this month, the FSR obtained tons of criticism that the regulation was too bureaucratic. Now, with the FSR basically being moved apart by the European Fee–the EU’s competitors enforcer–Saudi Arabia’s PIF is seemingly poised to amass EA.
Rumors of the deal swirled in September 2025, which noticed Saudi Arabia’s PIF, the private-equity agency Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Companions all concerned within the buy. Whereas EA admitted in November 2025 that there is a danger of promoting to Saudi Arabia, the corporate confirmed that it could nonetheless “keep inventive management” going ahead. Nonetheless, in December 2025, the Wall Avenue Journal reported that a majority of EA’s management would shift to Saudi Arabia’s PIF after the acquisition will get finalized. The deal has riled players since, prompting cosplayers to raid EA’s California headquarters in protest.
Ought to every thing go as planned–and it reportedly sounds prefer it all will–this acquisition can be the second-largest gaming buyout ever after Microsoft’s $75.4 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in October 2023.
