Video game maker, Electronic Arts, announcing a $55 billion deal to go private in what is set to be the largest leverage buyout deal in Wall Street history, led by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia.

Steve Kobach has more in today's tech check. Steve.

Yeah, this is a big one because I really wanted to look, Sarah, into the Saudi Public Investment Fund and all the money it's been spending on gaming as it's been pushing over the years to build a video game juggernaut.

It's encompassing everything from the hottest mobile gaming properties to giant e-sports tournaments out there in Saudi Arabia.

Now, the WSJ report that came out on Friday initially about this deal

sent shares of TIC-2 Interactive and Roblox higher on this idea that there's going to be even more

consolidation and M&A in the video game space. And if that's the case, the PIF actually already

stands to benefit as it's been gathering stakes in major gaming companies for some time now.

Within that PIF gaming empire, before today's announcement, it already owned nearly 10% of electronic arts,

which will, of course, be rolled into its ownership stake in this new deal.

It also owns about 6% of Grand Theft Auto Maker Take 2 and about 4% of

Japanese Nintendo. Plus, it acquired the Pokemon Go game this spring for $3.5 billion

and bought the parent company of Monopoly Go, which is a huge mobile game for almost $5 billion.

It's also sponsoring huge esports competitions also sponsoring huge e-sports competitions like the annual

ESports World Cup in Riyadh that's been held the last two years.

And Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salam himself is a gamer and a key driver behind all those deals.

And David Faber, by the way, reporting this morning, Sarah, the PIF is, of course,

going to own a majority of EA after this deal closes, with Affinity and Silver Lake splitting the rest.

It also comes amid a slump in the video game industry. Just take a look at EA's annual revenues

over the last five years, relatively stagnant over the last three coming out of the

COVID lockdowns. And the stock is up only 56% in that period, lagging behind the S&P, which is up

about 100% in the same time. And Electronic Arts is going to be taking on about $20 billion in

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