Electronic Arts Reaches Agreement to Acquire Developer Codemasters

Electronic Arts announced that they have reached an agreement with the Board of Codemaster to acquire Codemasters, the UK-based game developer and publisher.

“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.

The combination of EA and Codemasters will ensure that the growth of future titles from the developer. Codemasters will continue to release high-quality racing games, where EA believes they can help the performance of the series, by their…deep expertise in “live service operations,” and technology.

During the transaction, Codemasters’ shareholders will be entitled to receive 604 pence (approximately US$7.98) in the case for each ordinary share of Codemasters with an implied enterprise value of US$1.2 billion. The acquisition is anticipated to be completed in the first quarter of calendar 2021.

“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.

Frank Sagnier, Chief Executive Officer of Codemasters, and Rashid Varachia, Chief Financial Officer of Codemasters, along with the senior executive management team of Codemasters intend to remain with Codemasters following completion of the acquisition and will continue to lead the Codemasters business within EA’s organization.

Earlier, Sky News reported that EA was looking to outbid Take-Two with a nearly $1 Billion offer. This past year Codemasters has release FI 2020 and Dirt 5.