Monopoly Go buyer joins $55 billion EA take-private bid

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According to Kotaku, EA has formally announced that the required regulatory approvals for its sale to an acquiring group made up of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake Partners, and Affinity Partners have all been secured. As of July 30, 2026, EA says every approval needed to complete the merger has been obtained, and the company expects the $55 billion privatization deal to close around the end of trading on August 4, 2026.

The price is only part of the story. The bigger change is what disappears from public view. Once EA becomes a private company, its financial data and other key information about the company's condition will no longer be visible to the public. For investors, analysts, and players trying to read EA from the outside, the window gets much smaller.

EA's statement still includes one caveat: completion remains subject to the satisfaction or waiver of the remaining customary closing conditions set out in the Merger Agreement. The caveat is procedural, but it still matters.

Kotaku notes that the deal could still be delayed by an unexpected issue. Still, the current picture is clear enough: EA is now very close to completing its privatization next week.

The $55 billion price also puts the deal in rare territory. If completed, the deal will become the second-largest acquisition in the history of the video game industry, behind only Microsoft's 2023 purchase of Activision Blizzard for $75.4 billion. At that scale, this is no longer only an EA story; it is a consolidation story. EA leaving the public market also means the industry loses one more giant publisher whose health could be studied from the outside.

The buyer list matters. The acquiring group consists of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake Partners, and Affinity Partners. PIF has been highly active in games in recent years, taking stakes in companies including EA, Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, and Take-Two.

It has also completed full acquisitions of Scopely, the developer of Monopoly Go, and Niantic, the developer of Pokemon GO. That context makes this EA deal look less like an isolated transaction than another step in a larger investment push around major game companies, mobile hits, and established publishers.

For players, the frustrating part is that EA's priorities may become harder to judge from the outside. Privatization does not mean EA's games instantly get better. It also does not mean a major series immediately changes direction. For players who care about design, teams, and creative priorities, the important questions remain unanswered: Will ambitious ideas be supported? Will design decisions be respected? The only reliable evidence will come later, through actual games and studio-level choices.

The larger trend is worth watching beyond EA itself. Mobile gaming companies, platform holders, and long-established publishers are increasingly being connected by the same capital networks. The sensible move is simple: do not preorder out of optimism, and do not panic-spend out of fear. Wait for concrete game announcements, service policies, and post-deal decisions before judging what this privatization really changes. What matters next will not be the merger paperwork, but the games, policies, and studio decisions that follow it.