Congressman and Sims Streamer Join Forces to Block Saudi EA Acquisition

A $55 billion leveraged buyout could soon transfer 93.4% ownership of Electronic Arts (EA) to Saudi Arabia, pending regulatory approval. The deal also includes minority stakes for Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, led by Jared Kushner. Shareholders overwhelmingly approved the acquisition late last year, but the transaction remains under regulatory scrutiny.

Now, two unlikely allies—US Representative Maxwell Frost and Kayla “Lilsimsie” Sims, a prominent Sims content creator on YouTube—are teaming up to oppose the deal. Last week, they joined forces with the advocacy group Players Alliance to host a livestream opposing the EA acquisition while playing Stardew Valley together.

The livestream focused on the potential negative impacts of the deal and encouraged viewers to take action. Participants were urged to sign a “Block The EA Deal” petition addressed to Scott Bessent, the US Secretary of the Treasury. The petition has since garnered over 67,000 signatures.

Why This Approach?

Despite 46 House Democrats urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the labor market consequences of the proposed acquisition, Frost believes more lawmakers could oppose the deal if they fully understood its implications.

“I would venture to say that there's a lot more members of Congress that are against this. They either didn't sign the letter [to the FTC] in time or most likely don't even know what's going on. This is something I talked about on the stream: Breaking news, members of Congress don't know everything. It's part of the reason why grassroots organizing is so important, why petitions are so important, or reaching out to offices is so important. A lot of the time, even if you don't realize this, you're educating the member in the office themselves on an issue they might not even know about, and then if they know about it, they might not understand how it impacts their constituents or why it's a big deal.”

Frost emphasized the importance of educating lawmakers and the public about the deal’s potential consequences. Partnering with Sims, who has millions of followers across her channels, provided a unique opportunity to amplify the message and mobilize the gaming community.

“[Sims] has such a huge platform. She's already been talking about [the ramifications of the EA buyout], and it was a great opportunity to, for one, educate people, but [also] to actually tell them how they can get involved, how they can make a difference, and then make sure they know that regardless of what happens this time, you're building power for the fights you don't even know about. When players, content creators, and everybody who gives a damn about gaming comes together? We're building power, and it's going to be used even outside of this.”