Sega acquires Angry Birds creator Rovio for $776m
Sega has come to an acquisition agreement with Rovio for a mind-blowing amount of $776 million, all cash. Rovio is the developer of Angry Birds, one of the most popular mobile games of all time.
Rovio has been in talks with a couple of companies for a while, and finally, it reached the final phase with the Japanese gaming giant Sega. Even though the deal won't be completed immediately, Rovio expects the acquisition to be completed in the second quarter of its fiscal year. This means that there is still a couple of months ahead.
"The Board of Directors of Rovio, represented by a quorum comprising all members of the Board of Directors, has unanimously agreed to recommend that the shareholders and the option holders of Rovio accept the Offer," said Rovio in the press release.
"Among the rapidly growing global gaming market, the mobile gaming market has especially high potential, and it has been SEGA's long-term goal to accelerate its expansion in this field. I am confident that, through combination of both companies' brands, characters, fanbase, as well as corporate culture and functionality, there will be significant synergies created going forward," said Haruki Satomi, president and group CEO of Sega Sammy Holdings.
Rovio has been in talks with Sega and Playtika
A couple of months ago, Playtika, a mobile gaming company based in Israel, wanted to acquire Rovio for $810 million, but for some reason, the parties couldn't reach an agreement. Rovio and Playtika didn't give any further details about the issue.
The Finnish company was founded in 2003 and launched several games for iOS and Android devices. It started a new era with Angry Birds in 2009. Angry Birds was a huge success, and it used to be the top product in the mobile game market. Moreover, the game also has two movies to its name, released in 2016 and 2019. Rovio's games have been downloaded over a billion times in years.
"Our mission is to 'Craft Joy' and we are thrilled at the idea of using our expertise and tools to bring even more joy to our players, enhancing and expanding Rovio's and Sega's vibrant IPs, said Alexandre Pelletier-Normand, CEO of Rovio.
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