S&P Dow Jones Indices set the date in a Friday release: Ferguson Enterprises joins the S&P 500 effective prior to the open on Wednesday, August 5, and Electronic Arts comes out [1]. The reason is the endgame of last fall's buyout. In the index provider's words: "An investor consortium comprised of Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners are acquiring Electronic Arts in a deal expected to be completed soon, pending final conditions" [1].
The terms are unchanged from the announcement. Shareholders receive $210 per share in cash, against an unaffected closing price of $168.32 on September 25, 2025. The premium works out to 24.8 percent; EA's release rounds it to 25 [2]. Enterprise value is roughly $55 billion, which the company calls "the largest all-cash sponsor take-private in history" [2]. Behind the price sits about $36 billion of equity from the Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, with PIF rolling over the 9.9 percent stake it already owned, plus $20 billion of debt committed by JPMorgan Chase Bank, of which about $18 billion is expected to be funded at close [2].
The index change is the part that reaches people who never made a decision about video games. A fund tracking the S&P 500 holds what the index holds, by construction. When the index committee deletes a stock, every tracking fund sells it on the same schedule, which makes Wednesday's open the moment EA stops being something an S&P 500 index fund, and every retirement account built on one, passively owns. In a cash buyout the exit is undramatic: whoever holds the shares at completion receives $210 each, so the deletion is bookkeeping performed slightly ahead of the checks.
One wrinkle deserves plain statement: as of Sunday, the deal has not closed. The index provider's language is "expected to be completed soon, pending final conditions," and EA's own release targeted the first quarter of its 2027 fiscal year as the closing window [1][2]. Scheduling the removal for Wednesday signals that the parties expect the final conditions cleared within days. A schedule is not a completion, and this piece treats the close as pending until the companies announce it.
The same release covers two smaller moves at the other end of the market-cap scale. ADI Global Distribution, being spun off from Resideo Technologies in a transaction completing August 4, joins the S&P SmallCap 600 effective that day. Hertz Global Holdings leaves the SmallCap 600 effective August 5, in the index provider's phrasing "no longer representative of the small-cap market space" [1].
EA chairman and CEO Andrew Wilson framed the sale as a legacy statement: "Our creative and passionate teams at EA have delivered extraordinary experiences for hundreds of millions of fans" [2]. Lead independent director Luis A. Ubinas said the board "carefully evaluated this opportunity and concluded it delivers compelling value for stockholders" [2].
What remains is the completion announcement itself. When it comes, one of the most widely held game publishers becomes the property of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and two investment firms, financed in part by $20 billion in committed bank debt, and the closing public act will have been an index committee tidying the shelf ahead of the movers.
