Kushner shepherds $55bn mega deal for games giant

How big can buyouts of public companies get? Last week’s $55bn deal to take the gaming giant Electronic Arts private set a new record.

- By Matthew Bishop

The previous biggest buyout of a listed company was in 2007, when Texan energy utility TXU was acquired by KKR, TPG and Goldman Sachs for $44.3bn. But KKR’s most infamous deal — the disastrous “Barbarians at the Gate” buyout of RJR Nabisco for $31bn in 1989 — when adjusted for inflation, cost roughly what Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake and Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners are paying for Electronic Arts.