Saudi Arabia Weighs Merging Electronic Arts with Savvy Games
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is considering a merger of Electronic Arts (EA) with Savvy Games, according to Bloomberg. This potential deal would place popular titles like Madden NFL and Pokémon Go under the same roof.
The fund already holds approximately 93% of EA and owns Savvy outright. While nothing has been finalized, the merger could potentially avoid a European filing as it involves entities already under the same ownership.
Bloomberg draws a parallel to Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, but the situation in Europe is nuanced. The European Commission approved the EA takeover on competition and foreign subsidies grounds in early July. The key distinction being that the proposed merger would not change who controls the companies, as both already answer to the Public Investment Fund.
With Savvy recently acquiring Moonton from ByteDance for $6 billion, a merger decision is expected once that buyout closes.
Savvy‘s growth strategy, funded primarily by the Public Investment Fund, has focused on mobile gaming, a sector experiencing significant growth. This shift contrasts with EA’s recent decision to cancel mobile titles acquired through Glu Mobile.
The potential merger also follows a management change at Savvy, with CEO Brian Ward stepping down and being replaced by Turqi Alnowaiser, a deputy governor of the Public Investment Fund who led the EA negotiations.