This is why EA is going private - DTNS 5114

We reveal what we think the long-term strategy is for EA, plus OpenAI parental controls, and Tile trackers have a tracking problem. 

Starring Tom Merritt and Robb Dunewood.

TOM: This is the Daily Tech News for Monday, September 29, 2025. We tell you what you need to know, follow up on the context of those stories and help each other understand.

ROBB: Today why EA is leaving the game.. Of being a public company… and what that means for us, the gamers.

I’m Tom Merritt,

I’m Robb Dunewood.

TOM: Let’s start with what you need to know with the big story.

[[BIG STORY]]
[[SOLO story of the day. Basic details, monitor commentary and sound when possible.]]

It’s official: EA is selling to private equity in $55 billion deal - Ars Technica
Electronic Arts Agrees to $55 Billion Leveraged Buyout - Bloomberg
Why EA Is Ready to Quit Wall Street’s Game - WSJ

TOM:
Electronic Arts announced that a partnership of Silver Lake, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), and Affinity Partners will pay $55 billion for a leveraged buyout, taking the gaming company private. EA CEO Andrew Wilson is expected to stay on after the sale.

PIF already had a 9.9% stake in EA and also has stakes in Nintendo, Take Two, Activision Blizzard, Capcom, Nexon, and Koei Tecmo. It also owns Scopely, the maker of Pokémon Go and Monopoly Go.

Silver Lake helped Dell go private in 2013.

Affinity Partner's CEO is Jared Kushner, who is married to the President's daughter. It has mostly invested in Israeli startups.

EA has not grown as fast as investors think it could, but it is far from a struggling business. It brought in $7.5 billion in revenue in the 2025 fiscal year. EA's strengths are sports titles like Madden and EA Sports FC. It also has Battlefield 6 scheduled for release on October 10th, with high sales expectations. And it makes iconic franchises like The Sims, Dragon Age, and Plants vs. Zombies. EA made 4 of the top 10 best-selling games last year.

The three companies are offering an estimated 25% premium over the stock market valuation at the time of the announcement. It would be the largest leveraged buyout ever done. A leveraged buyout means a significant portion of the acquisition is borrowed. JPMorgan Chase Bank is lending $20 billion in this case.

After regulatory review, the deal is expected to close in early 2027.

It's an interesting move in the story of video game company consolidation. Reportedly, Sony, Apple, Amazon, and NBCUniversal all discussed a takeover of EA, but all found it too expensive.

Robb, how do you think this will affect the games we play?

ROBB: DTNS is made possible by you the listener. Thanks to
Jim Harte
Mike Aikins
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New Patron: Bruno,
And a raise from Mr Evans and Dean

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TOM: There’s more we need to know today, let’s get to the briefs.

[[BRIEFS]]
[[3-9 more solo reads with sound to complete the day in tech news. These are informational with minor commentary.]]

Microsoft is Bringing “Vibe Working” to Office Apps - Thurrott.com
Microsoft launches ‘vibe working’ in Excel and Word | The Verge

ROBB: Microsoft is launching an Agent Mode for Excel and Word that can generate spreadsheets and documents based on a user prompt, using OpenAI's GPT-5 model. Microsoft is also adding an "Office Agent" outside of Office apps in Copilot chat, powered by Anthropic's models that can create PowerPoint presentations and Word documents. In its announcement of these new tools, Microsoft said, “Today we’re bringing vibe working to Microsoft 365 Copilot with Agent Mode in Office apps and Office Agent in Copilot chat.” The new tools are available in the Frontier program for Microsoft 365 Copilot customers or Microsoft 365 Personal / Family subscribers. The Excel and Word Agent Modes are only available on the Web at launch, but will come to desktop soon.

OpenAI rolls out safety routing system, parental controls on ChatGPT | TechCrunch
ChatGPT tests free trial for paid plans, rolls out cheaper Go in more regions
OpenAI is routing GPT-4o to safety models when it detects harmful activities

TOM: OpenAI officially introduced its parental controls in ChatGPT on Monday. Parents can set quiet hours, turn off memory, voice mode, and image generation, and opt out of model training. Teen accounts also get a reduced possibility of graphic content or extreme beauty ideals and a system to recognize potential self-harm. OpenAI is also testing its new safety system for all users, which, on a per-message basis, routes emotionally sensitive conversations to GPT-5-thinking, which is better equipped to offer what OpenAI calls "Safe Completion" of answers to sensitive questions. And OpenAI expanded its $4 a month ChatGPT Go plan from India to Indonesia. It has limited deep research and no video generation or Codex agent.

DJI loses lawsuit over classification as Chinese military company | TechCrunch

ROBB: U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman ruled Friday that the US Department of Defense was justified in adding DJI to a list of companies that contribute to the Chinese military industrial base. This prohibits federal agencies from using DJI products. Judge Friedman wrote, “Whether or not DJI’s policies prohibit military use is irrelevant. That does not change the fact that DJI’s technology has both substantial theoretical and actual military applications.” This is separate from a requirement passed by the US Congress, which gives DJI until December to convince a national security agency that it does not “pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States,” or face a ban on its sale in the US.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme Isn’t the Fastest Laptop SoC, as Apple’s M4 Max Beats It in Single-Core & Multi-Core Performance
Apple's iPhone 17 chip becomes the fastest single-core CPU in the world on PassMark, beating PC chips and Apple's own M3 Ultra — passively-cooled A19 CPU catapults past power-hungry competitors | Tom's Hardware

TOM: Last week, Qualcomm showed a reference laptop running its Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme chip that beat Apple Silicon. As expected, benchmarkers checked that claim and now note that the Apple M4 Max beats the X2 Elite Extreme by 9.5% on a single-thread Cinebench 2024 test and 2.8% in multi-thread. That's enough to give Apple bragging rights, but still a very big improvement for Qualcomm, putting it arguably on par. Meanwhile, Tom's Hardware found that Apple's new A19 chips for its phones are the fastest CPUs available, according to PassMark. Of course, speed isn't everything, and the chips don't perform as well on multi-thread benchmarks. But still, both A19 and A19 Pro beat actively-cooled chips like Intel's Core Ultra 9 258K and AMD's EPYC 4585PX and even Apple's own M3 Ultra.

Tile security flaws can let stalkers track your location, and more

ROBB: Wired reports that Akshaya Kumar, Anna Raymaker, and Michael Specter of Georgia Institute of Technology discovered that Tile's tracking tags broadcast an unencrypted static MAC address alongside its rotating ID. This could be used by a malicious actor to rebroadcast the information to make it appear as if the tag is near someone. In other words, they could frame the Tile owner to look as if they are stalking someone. The security researchers reported the findings to Tile in November, but Tile stopped talking to them in February.

TOM: And finally, a few quick headlines that are just good to know if you want to understand the news in the future.

DeepSeek Debuts ‘Sparse Attention’ Method in Next-Gen AI Model - Bloomberg

ROBB: China's DeepSeek updated the DeepSeek-V3.1-Exp platform as an intermediate step toward its next-generation model, and cut prices of its software tools.

Snapchat introduces a paid storage option for all the Memories hoarders out there

TOM: Snapchat will impose a 5GB limit on its Memories storage feature and offer "Memories Storage Plans" starting at $1.99 a month for people who need more.

Google’s gradient ‘G’ icon, design is going company-wide

ROBB: Google is rolling out the gradient version of its G logo, which it has been using on search, to all its products.

Apple is reportedly nearing production for its M5 MacBooks

TOM: Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says his sources indicate Apple is nearing mass production of the next MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros, and two new monitors, which will launch sometime between the end of the year and the end of Q1 2026.

ByteDance expected to maintain big role in new US TikTok, sources say

ROBB: Reuters sources say Bytedance will maintain ownership of TikTok's US business operations, like ecommerce and advertising, while the new US-owned company will handle the app's data, content, and algorithm maintenance.

TOM: What do YOU want to hear us talk about on the show? One way to let us know is in our subreddit. Submit stories and vote on them at www.reddit.com/r/DailyTechNewsShow/

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[[HELPING EACH OTHER UNDERSTAND]]
[[Short missives from people with experience. Could be written email or pre-recorded from the person.]]

ROBB: We end every episode of DTNS with some shared wisdom. Today David and Arturo have some thoughts on this weekend’s special episodes

TOM:
Arturo wrote:
Been in Japan for the month…. the monthly recap was particularly well timed for me.

I’ve been able to listen to some of the weekly DTH ones and they were somewhat useful too for me, but on weekends I have less time to listen alone so this monthly one especially hit the spot.

AND
David writes:
Just listened to "The Truth About Tylenol." It was brilliant.

I went into it apprehensive, hoping it wasn't going to be political, and wondering how it fit into the DTNS remit. And all my fears were allayed; Dr. Gerry Tolbert brought clearheaded facts to the table, helping me understand the situation better.

And did it truly fit into the DTNS wheelhouse? I'm not completely convinced that it did, but when it's this good I'm happy to welcome it in. And the same goes for the episodes with Dr Nikki too.

Please keep up the good work.

[[DISCUSS]]

ROBB: What are you thinking about? Got some insight into a story? Share it with us feedback@dailytechnewsshow.com

TOM: Thanks to David and Arturo for contributing to today’s show. And thank YOU for being along for Daily Tech News Show. You can keep us in business by becoming a patron, at Patreon.com/dtns