APRIL 5, 2010 • Reliance Big Entertainment, the parent of India’s Zapak Digital Ent. portal, has acquired a 50% share of publisher Codemasters. Zapak will oversee Codemasters operations moving forward. Terms were not disclosed. Zapak bills itself as India’s largest gaming company.

Impact: Zapak, is the largest company in the still nascent India game market.  However, it is a minor portion of a much larger conglomerate, Reliance ADA, a company with about $16 billion in revenue.  Reliance Big Entertainment is the media and entertainment division of Reliance ADA.  Most of its focus has been on the film industry, and in 2008 Reliance helped fund a venture with DreamWorks SKG that allowed the later company independence from Paramount Pictures.  So for Reliance, the Codemaster investment is comparatively minor.  For its part, Codemasters has been actively looking for this type of investment deal for several years.  Codemasters is best known for racing games.