Electronic Arts told the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 30 that the regulatory work on its takeover is finished. The 8-K states it flatly: "As of July 30, 2026, all regulatory approvals required to complete the Merger have been obtained" [1].
On timing, the same filing is more precise than any calendar this desk had on Sunday: "Electronic Arts currently expects the Merger to close on or about the close of trading on August 4, 2026" [1]. That is tomorrow.
One sentence in the filing does the work of a caveat. "Completion of the Merger remains subject to the satisfaction or waiver of the remaining customary closing conditions" [1]. A company's stated expectation is not a completed transaction. The conditions that remain are described as customary and are not itemised in the language available here, so what is left between now and Tuesday's closing bell is not visible on the public record.
This desk reported on Sunday that the buyers and the seller had said nothing about when the deal would close, and that a Monday or Tuesday close was our inference from two other parties' calendars rather than an announcement. The seller had said something. It said it on July 30, in a filing, and we did not locate it. The inference landed on the right day; the document naming that day had been public for three days.
With EA's own date in hand, the other two calendars stop being evidence and become confirmation. Oak-Eagle AcquireCo moved settlement of its 1.850% Senior Notes due 2031 to August 4, stating that "The transactions are conditioned on closing the EA acquisition under the September 28, 2025 merger agreement with Oak-Eagle MergerCo, backed by an investor consortium" [4]. S&P Dow Jones Indices said on July 31 that "Ferguson Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: FERG) will replace Electronic Arts Inc. (NASD: EA) in the S&P 500 effective prior to the opening of trading on Wednesday, August 5" [3]. A close at Tuesday's final bell, a note settlement the same day, and an index change at Wednesday's opening bell is an ordinary sequence with one night in between.
What happens at that opening bell is mechanical rather than discretionary. From Wednesday the S&P 500 contains Ferguson and does not contain Electronic Arts [3]. A fund whose whole promise is to hold what the index holds has to be on the right side of that change when it takes effect. Nobody who owns such a fund places a trade or casts a vote; the holding changes because the list changed.
As of this morning the close has still not been announced. The wire feed carrying EA's press items shows no EA item dated August 1, 2 or 3 [2]. The most recent one, from 5:51 PM on July 31, still describes the company as "being acquired by an investor consortium led by Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners" [2]. Present tense, which is what a pending deal reads like.
A note on where these words came from. EA's investor relations site was fetched twice this morning and returned only navigation furniture, because the page renders its content in the browser rather than serving it in the document. The 8-K language quoted here comes from StockTitan's reproduction of the filing, not from EDGAR and not from the company's own site. The text is quoted exactly as that reproduction carries it.
The question this leaves is narrow and answerable within about thirty hours. Tuesday's closing bell either produces a completion announcement or it does not. If the deal closes on schedule, the index change on Wednesday is routine housekeeping. If Wednesday arrives with the swap in effect and no closing announcement behind it, the interesting story is no longer about a video game publisher.
