President of CWA Writes Letter to U.S. Regulators, Scrutinizing EA Buyout

EA is in the process of being acquired by an investor consortium that includes the Saudi Arabia state-backed Public Investment Fund (PIF). In response, Cummings Jr. has sent formal letters to both the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), calling for a “rigorous review” of the acquisition and to “take appropriate action given the potential national security issues.” The letter to the FTC also requested a meeting to discuss concerns with the acquisition. 

News of the EA deal has alarm bells ringing for a myriad of reasons, including foreign access to the personal data of millions of American consumers, impacts on labor markets and workers, and the history of human rights violations of the Saudi regime, who would now have leverage over an American company. “The transaction could lead to further reductions in jobs in these labor markets. EA has said publicly that the deal would not lead to ‘immediate’ layoffs, but with the deal being financed with a $20 billion loan—making it potentially the largest leveraged buyout ever—some analysts suggest layoffs are one of the key ways the company will seek to cut costs in order to service its massive debt,” Cummings Jr. wrote in his letter to the FTC. 

Cummings Jr. also emphasized that the data gathered by video game companies such as EA is similar to that of social media platforms, arguing that Saudi government access to American data with the acquisition warrants similar scrutiny. “The federal government is currently in the process of finalizing what amounts to a forced sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations from Chinese-owned ByteDance based on significant national security concerns related to a foreign government’s access to sensitive user data from Americans via their use of a social media app,” he stated in his letter to the CFIUS.

This acquisition coincides with EA’s recently published second quarter financial results for 2025, which show decreases in sales and revenue. Ending on Sept. 30, 2025, the results showed a 9% decrease in revenue and a 53% decrease in net income. Assuming it goes through, the acquisition deal is expected to be finalized by 2026.