EA Confirms $55 Billion Buyout Deal, and According to a Report, the New Owners Are Banking on AI to Reduce Operating Costs

Peter_Brosdahl

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It's the end of an era as EA has officially confirmed that it will be sold in a deal worth $55 billion, and the new owners are reportedly already planning big changes.

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Our creative and passionate teams at EA have delivered extraordinary experiences for hundreds of millions of fans, built some of the world’s most iconic IP, and created significant value for our business. This moment is a powerful recognition of their remarkable work, Looking ahead, we will continue to push the boundaries of entertainment, sports, and technology, unlocking new opportunities. Together with our partners, we will create transformative experiences to inspire generations to come. I am more energized than ever about the future we are building.
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And we will continue with our global push to eliminate as many positions as possible, squeeze as many pennies as we can from our fickle 'fan' base, and drip AI in to every mobile app we brand. Truly 'energizing' times as I take my millions buyout and leave the peasants to starve.
 
And you thought EA was evil...
 
Shotglass01 said:
And we will continue with our global push to eliminate as many positions as possible, squeeze as many pennies as we can from our fickle 'fan' base, and drip AI in to every mobile app we brand. Truly 'energizing' times as I take my millions buyout and leave the peasants to starve.
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I mean those were all things a company does before it gets sold. Eliminates financial liabilities all it can to clean up the books to make the purchase more tolerable. Cutting deep in layoffs is again a tradition of share holders/board members that don't care about the people but want to guarantee that cash money buyout. Also I'm sure they ran roughshod over anyone with PTO in the bucket that could roll over from year to year (see California state laws). Take it or be fired sort of roughshod as they can't make it take it or loose it.

Lots of schenanigains but all sadly normal for a company looking for the big purchase payout. I'm sure the board members and others with large numbers of shares were paid out quite handsomely and everyone else was... well...
 
Grimlakin said:
I mean those were all things a company does before it gets sold. Eliminates financial liabilities all it can to clean up the books to make the purchase more tolerable. Cutting deep in layoffs is again a tradition of share holders/board members that don't care about the people but want to guarantee that cash money buyout. Also I'm sure they ran roughshod over anyone with PTO in the bucket that could roll over from year to year (see California state laws). Take it or be fired sort of roughshod as they can't make it take it or loose it.

Lots of schenanigains but all sadly normal for a company looking for the big purchase payout. I'm sure the board members and others with large numbers of shares were paid out quite handsomely and everyone else was... well...
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A lot of companies are moving away from accrued and rollover PTO to a un"limited" PTO platform. And they're not paying out any accrued or rolled over PTO. They did that to us. We had people with 8+ weeks accrued that just POOF'd.

When you have hundreds or thousands of employees that's a lot of money they can be instantly wipe off the books.
 
Riccochet said:
A lot of companies are moving away from accrued and rollover PTO to a un"limited" PTO platform. And they're not paying out any accrued or rolled over PTO. They did that to us. We had people with 8+ weeks accrued that just POOF'd.

When you have hundreds or thousands of employees that's a lot of money they can be instantly wipe off the books.
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Considering that pto is supposed to be part of compensation it should be against the law. Flip it to unlimited but write that check.
 
Grimlakin said:
Considering that pto is supposed to be part of compensation it should be against the law. Flip it to unlimited but write that check.
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Should, but it's not.

I lost around 8 weeks when our company did this a couple of years ago. I didn't complain too loudly though - they compensate me well enough via other means.
 
Grimlakin said:
Considering that pto is supposed to be part of compensation it should be against the law. Flip it to unlimited but write that check.
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Depends on the wording of your employment contract. Some companies allow employees to cash out PTO thereby assigning a monetary value to it. Most companies don't allow that and assign no monetary value to PTO until it is used.
 
Riccochet said:
Depends on the wording of your employment contract. Some companies allow employees to cash out PTO thereby assigning a monetary value to it. Most companies don't allow that and assign no monetary value to PTO until it is used.
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Oh they do they have to legally account for it as an obligation.
 
Keep meaning to give them a try. I've picked up both for free but still haven't really got around to them.
 
Shotglass01 said:
And we will continue with our global push to eliminate as many positions as possible, squeeze as many pennies as we can from our fickle 'fan' base, and drip AI in to every mobile app we brand. Truly 'energizing' times as I take my millions buyout and leave the peasants to starve.
Click to expand...

$55 billion is a lot of money. Gotta cut corners to recoup that investment and get into positive RoI territory! Of course the product will probably suffer, but oh well, too bad.
 
Grimlakin said:
Oh they do they have to legally account for it as an obligation.
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This will depend...

Cash based accounting? Nope.

Employment policy to not pay out unused balance, assuming no state laws that force it? Nope.

It gets accounted for if there's a future obligation created - like the payout at termination.
 
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