EA Eyes $50B Take-Private, NYC Mayor Adams Exits Race, UK Backs Jaguar Land Rover, China Halts U.S. Soybeans & SEC Targets Retail Brand Buyers

29th September 2025

The biggest deal in gaming history may be brewing: Electronic Arts is in advanced talks to go private at a staggering $50 billion valuation, led by Silver Lake, Saudi Arabia’s PIF, and Kushner’s Affinity Partners. In New York, Mayor Eric Adams bows out of the re-election race amid federal charges and plummeting polls. Britain pledges a $2 billion loan guarantee to rescue Jaguar Land Rover after a crippling cyberattack, while U.S. soybean farmers face zero demand from China in the escalating tariff war. And the SEC accuses the buyers of RadioShack, Pier 1, and Modell’s of running a $112 million Ponzi scheme. All this and more in today’s Read It And Eat!

Major Headlines

• Videogame maker EA in advanced talks to go private at roughly $50 billion valuation

Electronic Arts (EA.O), the videogame publisher behind titles such as "FC" and "Battlefield", is in advanced talks to go private at a valuation of roughly $50 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter. A group of investors including private equity firm Silver Lake, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners could unveil a deal for the publisher as soon as next week, the sources said on Friday. If it goes through, the deal would mark the largest ever leveraged buyout in history.

The take-private offer comes at a crucial time for EA, which is banking heavily on its core sports portfolio and action shooter intellectual property to weather a sluggish videogame industry as gamers get picky with spending. EA's hopes rest heavy on "Battlefield 6", the latest installation in the popular shooter game franchise that has been lauded by fans for its detailed visuals and intense combat and which many analysts expect will sell millions of copies, as well as on its soccer title "FC 26".

The deal to take EA private would also mark further consolidation within the industry, after titans such as Activision Blizzard and Zynga were swooped up by even larger firms, further reducing the number of publicly listed videogame companies. "EA does make sense as an acquisition target - the cash flows are fairly consistent and EA's annualized titles make for predictable revenue/profitability," D.A. Davidson & Co analyst Wyatt Swanson said. Reuters

• New York Mayor Eric Adams drops re-election bid

Embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who has faced a federal bribery indictment and stunningly low approval ratings as the leader of the nation's largest city, dropped his bid on Sunday for a second term. His departure from the race, a little more than a month before Election Day, leaves the contest to become the city's next mayor effectively between frontrunner Democrat Zohran Mamdani and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Adams had struggled to raise money and trailed far behind Mamdani and Cuomo, who is running as an independent, in public opinion polls. Mamdani holds a sizable lead ahead of the November 4 election, while recent polls showed single-digit support for both Adams and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa. Adams announced he was dropping out in a nearly nine-minute video that showed him walking down stairs to Frank Sinatra's "My Way" while holding up a large photo of his late mother, just as he did when he voted for himself as mayor four years ago.

"Despite all we've achieved, I cannot continue my reelection campaign," he said in the video posted on X. He declined to endorse another candidate in the race and said he will finish his term, which ends on January 1, 2026. “I will continue to fight for this city," he said. President Donald Trump, a Republican who has warned about the consequences of a Mamdani win, earlier this month suggested that Adams and Sliwa pull out of the race even as the mayor swore he would remain until the end. Reuters

• Britain pledges $2 billion loan guarantee for Jaguar Land Rover

Britain will back Jaguar Land Rover with a 1.5 billion pound ($2 billion) loan guarantee to help support its supply chain in the wake of the luxury carmaker's production shutdown following a cyberattack. Jaguar Land Rover's shutdown lasted nearly a month, and the government had been exploring options to support the company and its supply chain, with some small suppliers saying they had one week left at most before they ran out of cash.

The carmaker, which is owned by India's Tata Motors (TAMO.NS), has three factories that together produce about 1,000 cars per day, and sustain many jobs in the area around Birmingham, Britain's second biggest city, and the northern city of Liverpool. A survey on Friday showed that some firms were reducing staff hours or making redundancies.

Business minister Peter Kyle said the cyberattack was "not only an assault on an iconic British brand, but on our world-leading automotive sector." "This loan guarantee will help support the supply chain and protect skilled jobs," he said. The business ministry said the loan would be privately financed and guaranteed by Britain's export credit agency UK Export Finance, and was expected to unlock 1.5 billion pounds of support for the carmaker's supply chain. Reuters

• China Bought $12.6 Billion in U.S. Soybeans Last Year. Now, It’s $0

Beijing, which traditionally has snapped up at least a quarter of all soybeans grown in the U.S., is in effect boycotting them in retaliation for the high tariffs President Donald Trump has imposed on Chinese goods and to strengthen its hand in negotiations over a new overall trade deal. It has left American soybean farmers fretting over not only this year’s crop but the long-term viability of their businesses, built in part on China’s once-insatiable appetite for U.S. beans. “This is a five-alarm fire for our industry,” said Ragland, who leads the American Soybean Association trade group. 

The situation might even be enough to test farmers’ loyalty to Trump, although he still enjoys strong support throughout rural America. If no deal is reached soon, they hope the government will come through with aid as it did during Trump’s first term, but they see that only as a temporary solution. Trump said Thursday he is considering an aid package.

U.S. and Chinese officials have held four rounds of trade talks between May and September, with another likely in the coming weeks. No progress on soybeans has been reported. Getting closer to harvest, “I’m honestly getting worried that the time is running out,” said Jim Sutter, CEO of the U.S. Soybean Export Council.

After Trump imposed tariffs on Chinese goods, China responded with tariffs of its own, which now total up to 34% on U.S. soybeans. That makes soybeans from other countries cheaper. China’s retaliatory tariffs also hit U.S. growers of sorghum, corn and cotton, and even geoduck divers have been affected. But soybeans stand out because of the crop’s outsized importance to U.S. agricultural exports. Soybeans are the top U.S. food export, accounting for about 14% of all farm goods sent overseas. New York Times 

• Buyers  of Radio Shack, Prier 1 Imports and other brands accused of running $112 million Pomzi scheme 

A pair of e-commerce entrepreneurs who bought a number of well-known retail brands  including RadioShack, Modell's Sporting Goods and Pier 1 Imports  out of bankruptcy are accused of running a Ponzi scheme. The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday accused Alex Mehr and Tai Lopez, founders of the Miami-based Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV), of defrauding investors out of approximately $112 million.

Through their holding company, Mehr and Lopez acquired distressed brick-and-mortar companies in order to turn them into successful, online-only brands. Dress Barn and Linens 'n Things were also among their acquisitions.  REV acquired RadioShack in 2020, three years after the nearly century-old electronics chain filed for its second bankruptcy. RadioShack first filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2015. In 2023, Unicomer Group acquired RadioShack, and in 2024, relaunched it as an e-commerce platform.

RadioShack's current owners are not named in the lawsuit. Modell's Sporting Goods filed for bankruptcy in March 2020, when it also announced it would be closing all of its stores. REV bought the Modell's brand name and assets in August 2020. Pier 1 Imports, which still exists as an online store declared bankruptcy in early 2020. REV acquired its trademark name and assets later that same year. The SEC's suit alleges that between 2020 and 2022, Mehr and Lopez "made material misrepresentations" to hundreds of investors about the bankrupt retailers they had acquired.

For example, to entice individuals to invest in their acquisitions, they said their portfolio companies were "on fire" and that "cash flow is strong." They also told prospective backers that money raised for a company would only be invested in that specific firm. That proved not to be the case, according to the SEC's lawsuit, which was filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. "Contrary to these representations, while some of the REV Retailer Brands generated revenue, none generated any profits," the suit states. Yahoo.Finance

Minor Headlines 

• UN delegates walk out on Netanyahu’s speech on Israeli assault on Gaza City intensifies CNN

  
  

• Revolut considers $75bn dual listing in London and New York City Am

  
  

• Amazon fall hardware event: Echo speaker, Vega OS-based FireTV expected Bloomberg

  
  

• Accenture to ‘exit’ staff who cannot be retrained for age of AI Financial Times 

  
  

• Trump to meet Republican, Democratic leaders as US gov’t shutdown looms Aljazeera

  
  

• China's new K visa beckons foreign tech talent as US hikes H-1B fee Reuters

  
  

• Nigeria eyes certification of China's C919 jet for local airlines Reuters

  
  

• Singapore population hits record 6.11 million, driven by foreign workers Reuters