Image credit: DIRT
Take-Two – the publisher behind the Grand Theft Auto and Borderlands series is to acquire British racing studio Codemasters in a deal worth just under $1bn (£759m). The deal is expected to be finalised in the new year. Codemasters are best known for their excellent work on the official Formula 1 game, Dirt and Grid.
In a statement via Business Wire, Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-two is delighted to get Codemasters on board:
We are exceedingly pleased to announce this recommended transaction with the Board of Codemasters. Codemasters has a renowned history of creating some of our industry’s most beloved and commercially successful racing franchises.
Zelnick then continued to say that the 100% buyout of Codemasters would be “highly complementary” to its existing sports portfolio which includes the NBA 2K games and welcomed Codemasters’ senior management and development teams.
On the Codemasters side, Gerhard Florin, Chairman of Codemasters sees huge benefits in the company being taken over by Take-Two.
With a leading position in sports gaming, the Board of Codemasters firmly believes the Company will benefit from Take-Two’s broad capabilities which will help propel the long term success of Codemasters.
As part of the deal, Codemasters will take advantage of Take-Two’s global distribution and marketing infrastructure. The British studio can therefore put more time and resources into their games and hopefully overall providing a better product.
What do you make of the acquisition of Codemasters? We doubt very much they will be working on huge Take-Two titles any time soon but maybe this added financial stability will bring a host of new titles from them.
