Take-Two Interactive To Acquire Codemasters

Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games and 2k has announced an agreement with Codemasters to acquire the company for £750 million ($980 million).

The announcement was made during a meeting with investors in which, Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick shared his excitement for the new acquisition:

“Codemasters has a renowned history of creating some of our industry’s most beloved and commercially successful racing franchises, and we believe that their offerings will be highly complementary to our sports portfolio and enhance further our organization’s long-term growth. Moreover, we look forward to welcoming Codemasters’ senior management and development teams into our Take-Two family, and sharing in our vision to deliver the highest quality entertainment experiences and aim to be the most innovative, creative and efficient company in our industry.”

Codemasters’ chairman Gerhard Florin added: “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. In recommending this Offer to shareholders, the Board of Codemasters believes it is in the best interests of all stakeholders in the Company.”

The addition of the large publisher will reinforce the 2K Games library, precisely for the F1 franchise of racing simulators. The official statement from the Take-Two Board affirms that the acquisition will prove to be pivotal for the economic vision of the company for the following reasons:

• Creates a global leader in interactive entertainment publishing through the combination of Take-Two and Codemasters’ complementary and critically-acclaimed sports and racing franchises and world-class creative teams;
• Enhances diversity and revenue visibility of the Take-Two IP portfolio through the addition of Codemasters’ regular title release cadence and high-quality racing titles;
• Delivers compelling financial benefits for the combined entities – growth, earnings, and operating margin accretive; and
• Provides enhanced revenue opportunity and cost synergy potential.

It’s expected that Take-Two uses a combination of stocks and cash to acquire all the shares in Codemasters and will own 100% of the company. The deal will be official in Q1 of the next financial year.

Codemasters is currently working on a new Dirt game and has also acquired Project Cars. Interestingly, the expertise of the developers can help to give more realism to the driving mechanics of Grand Theft Auto VI.

Source: Take-Two

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