The situation surrounding the alleged $50 billion acquisition of Electronic Arts is becoming more interesting.

The New York Times added an interesting twist to the story that broke over the weekend. We have already reported that Electronic Arts may be saying goodbye to the stock market as it prepares to go private, and Saudi Arabia may be involved. However, the story takes an unexpected turn when we add the name mentioned by the New York Times: Jared Kushner.

Jared Kushner‘s private equity firm and a large group of investors are in talks to acquire Electronic Arts, which, according to two sources familiar with the negotiations, could become one of the largest deals of its kind. Kushner’s company, Affinity Partners, along with other investors, including the Saudi sovereign wealth fund and Silver Lake Partners, is negotiating to take the publicly traded company private. Due to the confidential nature of the negotiations, sources requesting anonymity said the deal could be worth around $50 billion — the estimated value of the producer of the Madden NFL and Battlefield franchises.

Private investors see potential in Electronic Arts’ intellectual property. Porting some of these popular titles to mobile devices and making them free-to-play — while charging players for certain features — could help them reach a much broader user base. However, such drastic strategic shifts would likely reduce Electronic Arts’ quarterly profits, a challenging prospect for executives under public market scrutiny. Going private would allow the company to implement major changes without the pressure of quarterly earnings reports.

Now, back to Kushner. How is the 44-year-old businessman and investor connected to the president? The answer is simple: his wife is Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter. In other words, Kushner is the president’s son-in-law. This raises the question of whether this might be part of a broader national game development and publishing strategy.

Source: New York Times