Cheats-Area.com

   A month that began with a seemingly minor change of "corporate identity" for Codemasters (notice the new logo), turned out to be a huge turning point in the British company's 21-year old history! Their previous logo, dating back to 1990, was not the only thing that changed: ten days later (on June 11), Codies appointed three more industry veterans to its growing U.S. operations - two former Konami execs, and another one from Capcom (and Sega prior to that). But this was still just a minor step before the big news that came yesterday: the Darling family, who founded the company back in 1986, have sold all their remaining shares, leaving Codemasters to be owned 100% by venture capital firm Balderton Capital (formerly Benchmark Capital Europe).

   Balderton first took interest in Codies in 2005, when they bought a 40% stake, followed by another 30% in 2006. And with this latest acquisition, they are now completely free to pursuit a more aggressive expansion of the company, as clearly indicated by Ynon Kreiz (general partner of Balderton Capital and board member of Codemasters):
"Codemasters is now fully funded and ready for its next stage of growth, with a great pipeline of new products and a world-class management in place."    And not only are they free to lead Codies as they see fit from now on, but they also got the money to do it. During the same announcement, it was revealed that investment bank Goldman Sachs has provided £50 million (€74m / $98m) of finance to support the company's future growth plans, heralding "the next stage for Codemasters as it realises its ambitions to be a global player", as Rod Cousens (CEO) put it.

   Codemasters was founded in 1986 by the Darling twins - David and Richard - with the help of their father Jim, all of whom are now leaving behind the largest independent videogame developer and publisher in Europe. It may not have been the most popular publisher as well, but that's a whole 'nother story... a story well covered by GI.biz in their latest editorial, titled "Codies Remastered", in which they also analyze what this week's maneuvers could mean for the company's future...