Kirkland Advises Investor Consortium on Close of $55 Billion Acquisition of EA
Kirkland & Ellis advised an investor consortium comprised of PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners on the close of the acquisition of Electronic Arts Inc. (Nasdaq: EA), a global leader in digital interactive entertainment. The all-cash transaction valued EA at an enterprise value of approximately $55 billion, which is the largest take-private investment in history. Kirkland also advised on raising $18.5 billion of debt financing to support the acquisition. In addition to representing the investor consortium, Kirkland served as lead legal counsel to PIF.
The transaction included a payment of $210 in cash to shareholders for each share of EA common stock they owned as of the closing. EA’s common stock has ceased trading and will be delisted from Nasdaq. The close of the deal was announced on August 4, 2026. The initial transaction was announced on September 29, 2025 and was approved by EA stockholders at the special meeting of stockholders held on December 22, 2025.
The Kirkland team included corporate lawyers Maggie Flores, Sarkis Jebejian, Jonathan Davis, Lee Blum, Aseda Ghartey-Tagoe, Kamran Bajwa and Noor Al-Fawzan; debt finance lawyers Adam Shapiro and Conor O’Muiri; capital markets lawyers Josh Korff, Zoey Hitzert and Sarah Lipinski; executive compensation lawyers Scott Price and Matt Wood; international trade & national security lawyers Ivan Schlager and Erika Krum; tax lawyers Dean Shulman, Sehj Vather and Jake Jung; and antitrust & competition lawyer Stephen Mohr.
