A petition to block the acquisition of Electronic Arts by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia has been signed more than 70,000 times. The record-breaking buyout was announced late last year and immediately drew criticism from consumers. EA's purchase would see the developer and publisher go private for a price of $52.5 billion, with the largest investment from the PIF, which already owned a significant share of the currently publicly traded company.
With the proposed buyout expected to be completed this month, June 2026, a petition organized by Players Alliance HQ has amassed roughly 73,000 signatures. At the time of writing, the petition is about 1,600 signatures away from its goal of 75,000. The petition is aimed at gaining the attention of United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, insisting that the buyout will "further accelerate harmful anti-consumer practices that EA is already pushing."
The deal to turn EA private is a collaboration between the Saudi PIF and private equity firms Affinity Partners and Silver Lake. A major point of contention brought up by the petition is $20 billion in debt leveraged against EA in the buyout proposal, which is expected to lead to yet more layoffs at...
