Readwood City, California .– (Business Wire) – Today, Electronic Arts Inc. (Nasdaq: EA) announced that it has reached an agreement with the Codemasters Board for the recommended acquisition of the UK-based game developer and publisher Codemasters. In the transaction, the shareholders of Codemasters pay a U.S. dollar for each common share of Codemasters. Is entitled to ૦ .3 billion worth of share04 pence (approximately ્ય. US8 * *) The acquisition is expected to be completed in the first quarter of the 2021 calendar.
“Electronic arts and codemasters have shared ambitions to advance in the video game racing category. The Codemasters Board firmly believes that the company will benefit from EA’s knowledge, resources and broad global scale – in the overall and especially in the racing sector. We believe this union will provide an exciting and prosperous future for codemasters, allowing our teams to create, launch and serve extremely large and good games to a very enthusiastic audience. ” Said Gehard Flory, chairman of the Code Masters.
“We believe there is an exciting opportunity for fans to bring codemasters and electronic arts together to create exciting and innovative racing games. Our industry is evolving, the racing category is growing, and together we will lead a new era of racing entertainment. We have appreciated the creative talent and high-quality games of Codemasters for many years. With the full benefits of EA’s technology, platform expertise and global reach, this combination will allow us to grow our existing franchise and deliver more industry-defined racing experiences on a global fan base. We are delighted that both of our boards of directors are recommending this practice, and we look forward to welcoming such an exciting and talented team into the electronic arts family. ” Said Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts.
Strategic Rational:
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Electronic Arts believes that the combination of EA and Codemasters will lead to more growth and success for Codemasters and EA’s popular and latest racing franchises.
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Codemasters’ critically acclaimed games and racing franchises will bring together the combined skills and talents of Formula One, DIRT, DIRT Rally, Grid and Project Cars, EA’s global need for speed franchises, fan-favorite real racing mobs and our favorite real racing games. Will bring more innovation, and increase the delivery of content and experiences to a global audience for meaningful racing entertainment.
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The codemaster’s deep creative talent, including the Formula One franchise that has been producing high quality racing games for many years, delivers great entertainment for the F1’s growing fan base.
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EA believes it can help accelerate Codemaster’s performance by taking advantage of EA’s deep expertise in live services, operations, game analytics and technology. In addition, there will be resources available to EA’s Central Service Teams, Codemasters around development technology, art and motion capture, quality verification, compliance and localization.
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EA’s global publishing, marketing and game development support capabilities will also strengthen the existing capabilities of codemasters, expanding the appropriate market for addresses for codemasters’ franchises.
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The combination of Codemasters and Electronic Arts will enable the development and delivery of a market-leading portfolio of creative and exciting racing games and content for more platforms and more players around the world.
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The union also creates ongoing and expanded ways for players to join a combined portfolio of sports and racing games through EA’s industry-leading multi-platform subscription services.
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Bringing codemasters and electronic arts together also brings attractive economic benefits to the joint group. The acquisition is expected to increase net bookings and underlying profitability.
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Frank Signier, Chief Executive Officer of Codemasters and Fisher Rashid Varachia, Chief Financial Officer of Codemasters, intends to stay with Codemasters after the acquisition is completed and will continue to be in the Codemasters business at EA
For more information about the acquisition, please visit: wenster.com.
US dollar equivalent values as of December 11, 2020 are stated at the exchange rate of US 1. 1.3211: Enterprise value based on codemasters’ ited debt balance sheet as of March 31, 2020
UBS Investment Bank serves as the financial advisor to Electronic Arts & Squadron, Arps, Slate, Migher and Flom (UK), LAP as the legal advisor to EA.
Jefferies International Ltd. acts as a financial advisor and joint broker, and Liberam Capital Ltd. serves as a nominated advisor and joint-broker to Codemasters regarding acquisitions. Gowling works as a legal advisor to WLG (UK) LLP Codemaster.
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Looking forward to the statements
Statements contained herein that are not historical facts are considered to be forward-looking statements that are subject to change. Statements including words such as “expectation,” “faith,” “expectation,” “purpose,” “conjecture,” “plan,” “prediction,” “levy,” “goal,” “desire,” “may,” , “”, “” Could “(and the negative of any of these terms),” future “and similar expressions also identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements do not guarantee future performance and reflect management’s current expectations. Our actual results are discussed in statements looking ahead from a physical point of view. Some of the factors that may make a company’s results physically different from its expectations include: the impact of the announcement of the acquisition on the company’s business and the company’s operating results; Failure to meet the conditions for completion of the acquisition, including the occurrence of any circumstances or any other events that may give rise to the termination of the acquisition, or the acquisition of all necessary regulatory approvals; The company’s ability to successfully integrate codemasters ’operations and employees; COVID-19 epidemic impact, sales of company products and services; security The company’s ability to develop and support digital products and services, including online security and privacy management; Outages of our products, services and technical infrastructure; The ability to manage the company’s costs; Competition in the interactive entertainment industry; Government regulations; The effectiveness of the company’s sales and marketing programs; Timely development and release of the company’s products and services; The company’s ability to understand the expected benefits of the acquisition; Customer demand, and the availability of an adequate supply of console hardware units; The company’s ability to predict customer preferences between competing platforms; The company’s ability to develop and implement new technology; Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; General economic conditions; Changes in our tax rates or tax laws; And other factors, other factors described in Part 1 of the latest quarterly report of Electronic Arts on Form 10-Q under the heading “Risk Factors”, as well as other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our annual report for the financial year ended March 31, 2020. Form 10-K for.
These forward-looking statements are current until December 13, 2020. Electronic Arts assumes no obligation to amend or update any forwarding statement for any reason, except as required by law.
About the electronic arts
Electronic Arts (Nasdaq: EA) is a global leader in digital interactive entertainment. The company develops and delivers games, content and services online for consoles, mobile devices and personal computers connected to the Internet. In FY20, EA A recorded a GAAP net income of 5.5 billion. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, EA is a critically acclaimed, high quality brand such as EA Sports ™ FIFA, Battlefield ™, Apex Legends ™, Sims ™, Madden NFL, Need for Speed, Titanfall and Plants vs. Zombies. More information about EA is available at www.ea.com/news.
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Important tips for financial advisors
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