EA Reportedly Cuts Support Staff Ahead of $55B Buyout

Electronic Arts is reportedly cutting jobs across recruitment, customer support, trust and safety, and IT — the back-office and live-operations functions that keep its online games running — as the publisher heads toward the close of the largest take-private deal in corporate history. The cuts were first reported by Kotaku, which cited unnamed sources and a dozen public posts from affected employees. EA has not confirmed the layoffs and declined to comment.

The reported reductions hit support roles rather than game development. Members of EA’s Fan Care team were told in an internal email that EA would “adapt how we work to better meet fans’ changing needs,” language that flagged roles being changed, created, or moved to other teams, locations, or outside service partners. Affected staff reportedly include remote workers in the United States and employees at EA’s office in Hyderabad, India, some with more than a decade at the company. EA has not disclosed a headcount, and no layoff notice or securities filing has yet quantified the cuts.

Cuts against a record year

The timing is what makes the move notable. On May 5, 2026, EA reported record results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026: net bookings of $8.026 billion, up 9% year over year, and net revenue of $7.531 billion, up 1%. The company called it a record year, driven by the launch of Battlefield 6, the best-performing entry in the franchise’s history. EA skipped its usual earnings call, citing the pending buyout.

Trimming customer support, moderation, and internal IT while reporting a record top line is a cost-discipline signal, not a response to weak demand. These are recurring operating expenses tied to running live-service games at scale, not the studios that build them. Trust and safety teams moderate player behavior and enforce anti-harassment rules across EA’s online lobbies; Fan Care handles player support; recruiters fill the hiring pipeline. When those functions shrink, the strain usually shows up later as slower support, thinner moderation, and more reliance on outside vendors.

The reported cuts follow earlier 2026 rounds at the four studios behind Battlefield 6 and at Full Circle, the developer of Skate, and a wider company-wide reduction in 2025 that hit BioWare and Respawn. It is a pattern of repeated trimming across an industry where AAA budgets keep climbing even as publishers post strong sales.

Why the buyout changes the math

EA agreed in September 2025 to be acquired for about $55 billion by a consortium of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the private-equity firm Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners, the firm founded by Jared Kushner. Stockholders are to receive $210 per share in cash, a 25% premium to EA’s unaffected price, in what the company describes as the largest all-cash take-private in history. The Public Investment Fund is rolling over its existing 9.9% stake as part of Saudi Arabia’s broader push into games and entertainment.

The structure matters for employees. The deal is funded by roughly $36 billion in equity and $20 billion in debt committed by JPMorgan — borrowing that lands on EA’s own balance sheet once the merger agreement closes. A leveraged buyout of this size leaves the acquired company servicing a far larger debt load, which raises the pressure to protect margins by cutting recurring costs — exactly the support, moderation, and IT lines now reportedly being reduced. Going private also removes the quarterly-earnings scrutiny public companies face, giving the new owners room to reorganize without explaining each move to the market.

EA told employees in October 2025 that there would be no “immediate changes” to the workforce after the deal was signed. Eight months on, the reported cuts test how much weight “immediate” was carrying.

What to watch next

The transaction has cleared a key US hurdle: the federal antitrust waiting period lapsed in February 2026 without action from regulators. EA says only a limited number of reviews remain and is targeting a close in the first quarter of its fiscal 2027 — by the end of June 2026. Once the deal closes, EA’s stock will be delisted from the Nasdaq and the company will operate privately for the first time in decades.

For staff and players, the near-term signals are concrete:

• Whether the reported cuts widen or accelerate after the deal closes, when the new owners take operational control.
• Any formal layoff notices or filings that put a number on the reductions.
• How much support, moderation, and IT work shifts to outside service partners, as the Fan Care email suggested — a move that can slow player support and weaken moderation on EA’s online titles.

The reported reductions arrive before the new owners have formally taken charge, which makes them an early read on how a more heavily indebted EA intends to run its operations — and which functions it treats as expendable when the priority shifts to servicing the debt behind the biggest buyout the games industry has seen. Layoffs have rippled across the business throughout a brutal stretch for the industry, but EA’s stand out for landing on the teams that keep its live games online.