Bsimracing Sim Racing Resources and News for the racing enthousiast.
Back in November, the US-based game publisher Take-Two Interactive, known for its labels, Rockstar Games, 2K, Private Division, and Social Point, offered to acquire UK-based videogame developer Codemasters for an implied equity value of $994 million US Dollars, which is roughly 845 million Euros, or £759 million Pounds.
Over the weekend, things became a little complicated, as news broke that the American gaming industry giant, Electronic Arts attempted to outbid Take-Two Interactive’s offer. Appearantly, the board of the British Codemasters company now rejected the previously made and partially agreed offer by Take-Two Interactive.
Now Electronic Arts (EA) confirmed that they have reached an agreement with Codemasters to take over the UK gaming company at a value of $1.2 billion. The official acquisition is scheduled to be completed during the first quarter of 2021. Codemasters’ shareholders will be entitled to receive 604 pence (approximately US$7.98*) in cash for each ordinary share of Codemasters with an implied enterprise value of US$1.2 billion.
“Electronic Arts and Codemasters have a shared ambition to lead the video game racing category. The Board of Codemasters firmly believes the company would benefit from EA’s knowledge, resources and extensive global scale – both overall and specifically within the racing sector. We feel this union would provide an exciting and prosperous future for Codemasters, allowing our teams to create, launch and service bigger and better games to an extremely passionate audience,”said Gerhard Florin, the Chairman of Codemasters.
“We believe there is a deeply compelling opportunity in bringing together Codemasters and Electronic Arts to create amazing and innovative new racing games for fans. Our industry is growing, the racing category is growing, and together we will be positioned to lead in a new era of racing entertainment. We have admired Codemasters’ creative talent and high-quality games for many years. With the full leverage of EA’s technology, platform expertise, and global reach, this combination will allow us to grow our existing franchises and deliver more industry-defining racing experiences to a global fan base. We are pleased that both our Boards of Directors are recommending this transaction, and we look forward to welcoming such an exciting and talented team to the Electronic Arts family,”said Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts.
About Codemasters:
The legendary Codemasters video game developer and publisher based in Southam, England, is well-known for its racing game franchises, with titles and game series such as the TOCA series, the Colin McRae Rally series, the Grid series, the official F1 gaming franchise, the Dirt Series, and more.
In 2008, Codemasters also acquired the Sega Racing development Studio, and more recently Codemasters took over Project CARS developer Slightly Mad Studios, bringing the total staff at Codemasters to about 700 people.
Last but not least, in June 2020 the studio secured an exclusive license to produce the World Rally Championship series of games beginning a five-year deal in 2023, with plans to release their first game in 2024.
About Take-Two Interactive Software
Headquartered in New York City, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is a leading developer, publisher, and marketer of interactive entertainment for consumers around the globe. Take-Two Interactive develops and publishes products principally through Rockstar Games, 2K, Private Division, and Social Point.
Their products such as Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, BioShock, Borderlands, NBA 2K, and more are designed for various platforms such as console systems and personal computers, and mobile games for smartphones and tablets. The products are delivered through physical retail, digital download, online platforms, and cloud streaming services. The Company’s common stock is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol TTWO.
About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. It is the second-largest gaming company in the Americas and Europe by revenue and market capitalization after Activision Blizzard and ahead of Take-Two Interactive, CD Projekt, and Ubisoft as of May 2020.
Founded and incorporated on May 27, 1982, by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the designers and programmers responsible for its games as “software artists”. EA published numerous games and some productivity software for personal computers, all of which were developed by external individuals or groups until 1987’s Skate or Die!. The company shifted toward internal game studios, often through acquisitions, such as Distinctive Software becoming EA Canada in 1991. Currently, EA develops and publishes games of established franchises, as well as the EA Sports titles.
Their desktop titles appear on self-developed Origin, an online gaming digital distribution platform for PCs and a direct competitor to Valve’s Steam and Epic Games’ Store. EA also owns and operates major gaming studios such as EA Tiburon in Orlando, EA Vancouver in Burnaby, DICE in Stockholm and Los Angeles, BioWare in Edmonton and Austin, and Respawn Entertainment in Los Angeles.
https://www.ea.com/ Official Webpages – www.codemasters.com – www.take2games.com – www.ea.com
