PIF: Saudi Arabian State fund. Affinity Partners: Jared Kushner.
Well that's an easy boycott, EA has been pretty much irrelevant to the video games scene for the past few years anyway.
EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
191–200 of 461 posts
Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
#192Not referencing the Saudi Arabia portion here specifically but LBOs as documented in the book Barbarians at the Gate (covers Nabisco/RJR tobacco) gives me basically zero hope for the future of EA. EA was already rabid cost-cutters and RIF specialists, and they won the most hated company award for however many consecutive years for a reason. Giving them crushing debt to go along with their propensity to give large exe…
Are there any examples where a company was purchased via a leveraged buyout and the company went on to be more profitable afterwards? Because the only examples I know of resulted in the purchased company going bankrupt fairly quickly.
Heinz, Hilton, Dell.
Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
#193Videogamers have fickle tastes that can change on a whim, and the entire dev stack for game development is becoming more accessible and commoditized, creating massive amounts of competition. Even more so when it comes to squeezing beloved franchises out. Multiple franchises have died under EA (Sim City anyone?), and one of the top franchises EA owns basically has morphed into a "Middle East combat simulator" (Battlefield).
I'm sure the Saudi investors think this might be one way to get influence over the west, or maybe they just like playing FIFA, but I can see this buyout becoming a big stinking turd investment in the long run.
Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
#194Not referencing the Saudi Arabia portion here specifically but LBOs as documented in the book Barbarians at the Gate (covers Nabisco/RJR tobacco) gives me basically zero hope for the future of EA. EA was already rabid cost-cutters and RIF specialists, and they won the most hated company award for however many consecutive years for a reason. Giving them crushing debt to go along with their propensity to give large exe…
EA won the most hated company award because video game players are dramatic. Charging $5 for a launch DLC is a drop in the bucket compared to the ways that some larger more critical companies can affect your life.
[flagged]
Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
#195EAs customer base has been pretty negative on the state of the product for the last several years. I can't imagine this move will do anything but accelerate the trends driving brand dissatisfaction.
Customers feel like they are being treated like ATM machines, while the tens of billions of revenue are clearly not going into new, exciting creative endeavors. I suppose all of this makes sense when you consider that EA is a 45 year old company.
Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
For a moment, I thought you were saying they bought FIFA itself. Which doesn't seem out of the question, FSM knows they're for sale in every other way.
Given that they are getting the 34 cup, then yes? They did buy fifa?
FIFA controls a lot more than just video game naming rights...
Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
#197Oh nice, hopefully this means they can not chase profits as much
Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
#198Nothing more American than selling their assets to terrorists.
Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
[flagged]
> It has liberalised, socially I think that's what they meant by "moved westernly".
Sure, 2 inches per year, 2 steps ahead 1 step back in a good year. In 2000 years they may approach current levels of personal or religious freedom that average western country has. Till then, its absolutely horrible place if you are in any sort of minority group, or woman, or want that pesky freedom for you or your children.
Re: EA Announces Agreement to be Acquired by PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners
#200Finally the beginning of the end of EA. The greedy bastards ruined so many franchises and chased so many fads that their absence will be a net positive. I do feel bad for the devs working there... but them having to find new jobs is genuinely the only negative aspect in all of this.
I have very little respect for any company that is only interested in the next couple of financial quarters and in making their shareholders as much money as fast as possible (while all else can go f itself). And that's exactly the kind of company EA was for at least a decade. Good riddance.