EA outbids Take-Two, will acquire Codemasters for $1.2 billion

Back in November, Take-Two announced that it would be acquiring indie racing studio, CODEMASTERS, for £726 million. Over the weekend, reports emerged that EA was attempting to outbid Take-Two in the final hour and now, it would seem that the publisher was in fact successful.

EA is now acquiring Codemasters, not Take-Two. EA outbid the Grand Theft Auto publisher with a $1.2 billion (£895 million) buyout offer for Codemasters. Assuming nothing else changes, Codemasters will be an EA studio in Q1 2021, when the deal is expected to complete.

Take-Two and Codemasters have not commented on how their deal collapsed, but Codemasters and EA have both issued statements confirming the acquisition. Codemasters chairman, Gerhard Florin, said that both companies “have a shared ambition” when it comes to industry-leading racing games.

Meanwhile, EA CEO, Andrew Wilson, said: “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.”

KitGuru Says: EA hasn't performed particularly well over the last console generation when it comes to racing games. Burnout was scrapped and Need for Speed isn't close to as popular as it once was. Hopefully, we won't see similar fates for Codemasters' different racing IP, like Dirt, Dirt Rally, Grid and Project Cars.

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