End of an era. Who do we vote as the worst company ever now?

What a waste of Saudi money.

Because the Saudis leveraged this buyout via a massive loan from JP Morgan, EA's debt is now 10 times higher than it was when it was a publicly traded company: $2.2b to $22b.

Turns out the notion that they wouldn’t need humans to make games and they would use AI for most things was a pipe dream and firing staff to be profitable with the huge loan didn't work.

Now they are fucked.

Every company that spends money to buy up companies died and goes defunct because they keep failing to realize that they have to keep spending loads of money to make money and it doesn’t just roll in after acquiring IPs. Not even mobile slop or live service can save them anymore.

Fuck this corrupt system.

You want to buy a company? Bring your own fucking money. Why do we have to pay for this shit?

Same deal with LBOs in retail — Toys R Us, same playbook. Debt gets loaded onto company itself, buyer risks nothing. Company eats interest payments till it dies.

Bending Spoons seems to be doing fine

$22b debt assumes future revenue holds steady. Anyone checked what EA's actual cash flow looks like against interest payments alone?

Wow, so EA’s yearly loan interest alone will be more than their yearly profits.

If they aren't completely toast, they'll be a shell of what they are today, which is already a shell of what they once were.

Does this mean we'll finally get a new Sim City?

You'll take Skylines 2 and you'll like it.

Colossal Order's simulation model actually holds up better under scrutiny than Maxis' ever did, performance issues aside. Not a consolation prize.

Are you that eager to give your money to the Saudis and Kushner?

There’s a whole world of gaming out there.

SimCopter really should have priority IMO.

This is being bought by Affinity Partners, the same Kushner led group that’s trying to buy out FIFA?

Is the Trump family just going to own all of our entertainment and military companies?

> Is the Trump family just going to own all of our entertainment and military companies?

Are we the Bad Guys?

Not any more. Now we're the Worse Guys.

Uh, nobody is trying to buy out FIFA....

Ran a small studio, know how ownership churn hits teams. Doesn't matter who buys EA, layoffs and dead servers coming either way. Owners change, live-service math doesn't.

Ah private equity, the king midas of shit.

I thought I'd care more, but all EA is releasing nowadays is normie slop anyway, so yeah.

Between Saudi and right wing influence it seems one publisher will be trying to influence social commentary.

"Finalized" bit odd since deal closed months back per most coverage — could be wrong, but sale and closing aren't same milestone technically.