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PIF: Saudi Arabian State fund. Affinity Partners: Jared Kushner.

by nabla9 1y ago

imglorp 1y ago
Assuming the usual follow the money angle, what's the political play here for Kushner and the White House?
- jihadjihad 1y ago
  Propaganda?
- forgotoldacc 1y ago
  Tariffs on any game that fails to meet some specific condition that EA does. Pump the stock on EA. Drop stock prices on other companies. Buy them up. Repeat. Plus you can pull a Facebook/YouTube/Tiktok and use it to push impressionable people politically towards you. Media made for viewing is all a state enterprise at this point. Interactive media (games) have been looked over, but it seems that won't be the case anymore.
- WorldMaker 1y ago
  Most of the money is PIF, and that gets into a lot of accusations of "sportswashing": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportswashing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportswashing The Saudis through the PIF are heavily invested in entertainment brands and sports to distract from the fossil fuels (and worse) that create most of those investment funds. As to Kushner's-specific role, could just be cynically seen to money itself, as a US-based middleman of the PIF deal trying to take a cut. "Administrators" in these sort of private equity buyouts (leveraged buy outs) can make a lot of fast, stupid cash in a grift that probably should be illegal but still currently is not. (LBOs saddle the company being bought out with a lot of debt to pay the "Administrators" what they think they are worth. That debt often leads to the original company going bankrupt and selling their IP at auction to highest bidder and the "Administrators" also take their cuts of those auctions. It's a corporate ponzi scheme that no matter how many huge companies it takes down like Sears or Little Debbie or MGM or many more we still haven't actually put a law on the books to stop it.)
thiht 1y ago
Well that's an easy boycott, EA has been pretty much irrelevant to the video games scene for the past few years anyway.
- port11 1y ago
  It is an undeniably strong influence in the video games scene, with increasing revenue each year apart from minor tumbles. I despise what it stands for, but EA being called irrelevant?
  - CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
    > with increasing revenue each year apart from minor tumbles Very modest "increases" last ~3 years, and if I don't remember wrong, this year might be the first revenue didn't increase. None the less, I agree they aren't irrelevant, and I also despise them.

PIF: Saudi Arabian State fund. Affinity Partners: Jared Kushner.

by nabla9 1y ago

PIF: Saudi Arabian State fund. Affinity Partners: Jared Kushner.

imglorp 1y ago

Assuming the usual follow the money angle, what's the political play here for Kushner and the White House?

jihadjihad 1y ago
Propaganda?
forgotoldacc 1y ago
Tariffs on any game that fails to meet some specific condition that EA does. Pump the stock on EA. Drop stock prices on other companies. Buy them up. Repeat. Plus you can pull a Facebook/YouTube/Tiktok and use it to push impressionable people politically towards you. Media made for viewing is all a state enterprise at this point. Interactive media (games) have been looked over, but it seems that won't be the case anymore.
WorldMaker 1y ago
Most of the money is PIF, and that gets into a lot of accusations of "sportswashing": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportswashing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportswashing The Saudis through the PIF are heavily invested in entertainment brands and sports to distract from the fossil fuels (and worse) that create most of those investment funds. As to Kushner's-specific role, could just be cynically seen to money itself, as a US-based middleman of the PIF deal trying to take a cut. "Administrators" in these sort of private equity buyouts (leveraged buy outs) can make a lot of fast, stupid cash in a grift that probably should be illegal but still currently is not. (LBOs saddle the company being bought out with a lot of debt to pay the "Administrators" what they think they are worth. That debt often leads to the original company going bankrupt and selling their IP at auction to highest bidder and the "Administrators" also take their cuts of those auctions. It's a corporate ponzi scheme that no matter how many huge companies it takes down like Sears or Little Debbie or MGM or many more we still haven't actually put a law on the books to stop it.)

thiht 1y ago

Well that's an easy boycott, EA has been pretty much irrelevant to the video games scene for the past few years anyway.

port11 1y ago
It is an undeniably strong influence in the video games scene, with increasing revenue each year apart from minor tumbles. I despise what it stands for, but EA being called irrelevant?
- CaptainOfCoit 1y ago
  > with increasing revenue each year apart from minor tumbles Very modest "increases" last ~3 years, and if I don't remember wrong, this year might be the first revenue didn't increase. None the less, I agree they aren't irrelevant, and I also despise them.