[byronic]

Not 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 executive bonuses and stomp their workforce is not a good recipe long-term

[ARandumGuy]

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.

[nashashmi]

Gibson Greeting Cards (1982) by Wesray Capital, Bought for $80M (only $1M in equity), sold for $220M within 18 months

Hilton Hotels (2007) by Blackstone Group, Despite the 2008 crisis, refinanced and sold with a $14B profit

Safeway (1986) by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Restructured, sold underperforming stores, returned to profitability

HCA Healthcare (2006) by KKR & Bain Capital, Strong cash flow supported debt; remained stable and profitable

Dell Technologies (2013), Silver Lake Partners, Went private, streamlined operations, and rebounded strongly

RJR Nabisco (1989) by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Iconic LBO; despite controversy, generated $53M profit

[balderdash]

leverage increases the disparity of returns (so some companies are definitely out of business because the of the leverage put on them) but by far the vast majority of LBO’s are at least moderately successful.

This give you some idea of the volume https://www.ropesgray.com/en/insights/alerts/2025/07/us-pe-m...

[deanc]

Many sports teams come to mind. Pretty much any F1 team that exists is now worth a lot more on paper than it was purchased for. A few EPL teams come to mind too.

[choilive]

Dell did pretty well after going private

[jonas21]

Heinz, Hilton, Dell.

[missedthecue]

Hilton's LBO essentially have saved the brand.

Twitter is yet an unfolding story but it seems to be working.

[estimator7292]

It would be fantastic if EA went away. They've been such a blight on the entire industry, killed off or destroyed so many good franchises, developers, and studios.

[mnky9800n]

Did you see the HBO movie version of Barbarians at the Gate? I thought it was pretty interesting. You can watch it all on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS4ENJCIYNM

[deepfriedbits]

Loved the movie (and the book). The movie is highly entertaining for a business movie.

[mrcwinn]

This is a fantastic movie that was lost to time!

[vkou]

Does EA 202X stomp their workforce? I had a vague idea that this was largely a thing of the past.

The wiki article linked cites a lot of abuse, but all of it is nearly 2 decades old. My understanding was that it course corrected, and is one of the better gaming firms to work for ATM.

[byronic]

Jason Schreier (sp?) is probably the journalist with the best track record on covering EA and it’s generally been rotten all the way down. His recent book Play Nice focuses on just Blizzard but I wouldn’t be surprised if he does one on EA someday because they are in a league of their own when it comes to toxic workplace practices

[avanderveen]

In my experience at Maxis (2021-2024), EA 202X was quite a nice place to work

[Tiktaalik]

I do not have first hand experience, but my impression from being in the industry is that modern EA is not at all like the "EA spouse" era.

[Yizahi]

You had any hope for them?

[qn9n]

I was hoping the launch of early access skate. would be received poorly, it was due to the beloved franchise being made into a Fortnite-like money grabbing scheme, would cause them to run backwards and fix it releasing an actual skate series game with some live service features but a solid focus on the original franchise. However that hope is dwindling.

[ecshafer]

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.

[vunderba]

EA has been a target of scorn for a while because of a laundry list of issues (including pay-to-win schemes, loot boxes, treatment of employees, etc.) which is long enough to warrant its own dedicated wikipedia page.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Electronic_Arts

[stackskipton]

Sure, their “crimes” are minor compared to RealPage raising rents on everyone but it wasn’t because gamers were dramatic. It was most hated because it was so in your face.

[lofaszvanitt]

Nah, EA's history is laden with terrible decisions, killing creative teams, neglecting good project's marketing and killing them in the process because they had another internal game in the same genre and the like. It's a fucking cesspit of a company.

And they sit on a lot of good franchises and they literally do nothing with them.

[lupusreal]

Gamers will forgive anything if the games are good. But EA is nothing but a slop factory.