After shoring up its U.S. management team with three key appointments, U.K.-based Codemasters today made two major announcements. The first is that Balderton Capital (formerly Benchmark Capital Europe) has bought out the remaining shares from company founders David and Richard Darling and their father Jim—the Darlings founded Codemasters in 1986. The second is that the publisher has received a very healthy funding injection of $100 million (£50 million GBP) from Goldman Sachs.

Balderton originally acquired a 40 percent stake in Codemasters in 2005, and then added another 30 percent in 2006. Today the acquisition is complete. Balderton said that it's in alignment with their "strategy of taking large stakes in technology and media companies with very superior growth prospects."

"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," commented Ynon Kreiz, general partner of Balderton Capital and board member of Codemasters. "We are grateful for the contribution made by Jim, David and Richard and the key role they played to position the company for the future."

As for the significant funding from Goldman Sachs, the money will obviously go a long way towards helping Codemasters grow. "This new investment heralds the next stage for Codemasters as it realizes its ambitions to be a global player, readying itself for the digital age," said Rod Cousens, Codemasters CEO. "For more than twenty years, Jim David and Richard built Codemasters to become one of the video game industry's great British success stories; they brought enjoyment to many and made a valuable contribution to the industry as a whole."

Codemasters recently shipped the MMO The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar to critical acclaim, and the title became a number one selling PC game across Europe. This month the publisher is set to release DiRT and Overlord for Xbox 360 and PC.