At least one Electronic Arts employee was not happy about the sale of the company to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Firm, Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners describing it as a “F you” to women and LGBTQ+ employees.
Electronic Arts sold the company to PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners as part of a $55 billion sale to take the company private. In a press release, EA announced, “Electronic Arts Inc., a global leader in interactive entertainment, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an investor consortium (“the Consortium”) comprised of PIF, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners in an all-cash transaction that values EA at an enterprise value of approximately $55 billion. The transaction positions EA to accelerate innovation and growth to build the future of entertainment.”
Following this announcement, current EA CEO Andrew Wilson sent an email to employees that was obtained by former Kotaku journalist Stephen Totilo and published at Game File. As part of his email, Wilson promised that the company’s “values and our commitment to players and fans around the world remain unchanged.”
Notably, EA has not promoted values, but rather vices through the promotion of Pride Month and including all kinds of LGBTQ+ propaganda in its games from a so-called transgender character in Dragon Age, adding in surgery scars and chest binders in The Sims 4, and creating homosexual characters for Apex Legends among others. Additionally, the company also heavily promoted feminism in Battlefield V and pushed refugee crisis themes and climate change in Battlefield 2042.
Nevertheless, in response to the sale an anonymous employee told Totilo, “Andrew Wilson basically said ‘f you’ to all women and LGTBQ employees at EA with this deal.”
The employee added, “It just shows how many people have been collateral this past year for executives to make out rich. Nothing feels great. And we know, when the deal closes, it’s going to get worse before it gets better, if better is even possible.”
Another employee also told him, “I’m nervous about what this means in terms of workforce once the deal is closed, as layoffs usually follow those type of acquisitions.”
“And on a personal level, those future owners are really not in line with my values and beliefs,” this second person added.
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Anxious to see some Tik Tok rage videos!
This is going to be good if this is the reaction from the septum rings.
Lets hope this results in less of the Globohomo in EA and not an embracing of globohomo by the saudis