EA Outbids Take-Two in $1.2 Billion Acquisition Offer for Codemasters

UPDATE: Take-Two have officially pulled their offer to acquire the British racing giant Codemasters, with EA all but set to purchase the publisher once the deal completes.

Confirmed by Business Wire, the company announced today that they have let their original offer lapse following Codemasters new offer from EA last month.

Unless a new party comes in and offers a deal more than EA’s $1.2B, Codemasters will end up officially being acquired by EA.

Original Story: Back in early November, discussion arose following the release of DIRT 5 that publisher Take-Two Interactive was looking, and had seemingly come to an agreement, to purchase Codemasters for $956 million (£726 million) with the deal expected to go through at the start of 2021.

Reported by GamesIndustry.biz, EA have since gatecrashed this acquisition expressing their interest in acquiring the British racing game publisher, and have agreed a deal to acquire Codemasters in a deal worth around $1.2 billion.

Codemasters chairman Gerhard Florin said that both EA and Codemasters "have a shared ambition to lead the video game racing category."

"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,” Florin mentions in a statement.

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EA CEO Andrew Wilson added that the acquisition would position EA to “lead in a new era of racing entertainment”, stating that the gaming industry and the racing game category is growing.

It’s interesting to see Wilson and EA so adamant on dominating the racing game space, especially when EA had closed down its primary Need for Speed developer earlier this year.

Currently, EA only has one developer making racing games: the UK-based Criterion Games, who are currently in development on the next Need for Speed title slated to release in late 2021.

NewsCory JohnstonEA, CodemastersComment