the IPO, Reliance Entertainment held a 29.5% stake in Codemasters. Through placings in June and November 2019, Codemasters welcomed new institutional shareholders to the register whilst providing Reliance with a highly satisfactory exit and thus ending their nine-year relationship with them. Codemasters acquired Slightly Mad Studios, the developers of the Project CARS titles, in November 2019 for about . The acquisition brought the total staff at Codemasters to about 700 people. The studio acquired the exclusive license to the World Rally Championship series in June 2020 which will begin as a five-year deal in 2023, with plans to release their first game in 2024. 2020–present: As an Electronic Arts subsidiary Codemasters announced in November 2020 that it had been approached to be acquired by Take-Two Interactive as a buyoff offer valued at . Codemasters said its board was ready to approve the deal, pending the required regulatory approvals and Take-Two's own commitment once those approvals were granted. In the same month, both Take-Two and Codemasters agreed to a Take-Two buyout of Codemasters in a stock and cash deal around , which was expected to be completed by early 2021. Following the acquisition, Codemasters would have operated within the 2K label under its existing leadership. In a statement, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick said that Codemasters' racing games would fit well with its own roster of sports games. However, Take-Two's bid was subsequently trumped by Electronic Arts in December 2020, which offered to buy all outstanding shares at for an offer valued at about , about 14% higher than Take-Two's offer. Codemasters' board of directors agreed to the EA deal, which closed by the first quarter of 2021. Take-Two formally withdrew its offer in January 2021, ceding to EA's bid, while Codemasters' board signed off on EA's bid later that month. The acquisition was completed on 18 February 2021, with all shares transferred to Codex Games Limited, a subsidiary of EA. EA's Andrew Wilson said they plan to keep Codemasters as a standalone entity within EA similar to Respawn Entertainment. Codemasters announced in July 2021 that CEO Frank Sagnier and CFO Rashid Varachia will depart the company at the end of the month, as part of the EA acquisition plan. Special vice president of product development Clive Moody and of publishing Jonathan Bunney will take over leadership of Codemasters following this. In May 2022, EA merged Codemasters subsidiary Codemasters Cheshire into Criterion