Legendary gaming company Sega is set to acquire Angry Birds maker Rovio Entertainment Oyj for around €706m ($775m).
Sega has submitted an official bid for all of Rovio’s outstanding options and shares. The offer of €9.25 ($10.15) per share is a premium of about 19% on the pre-announcement closing price. Rovio’s board is reportedly in favor of accepting the offer.
a greater presence in the mobile gaming sector
Sega believes the purchase of the Finland-based company would permit it a greater presence in the mobile gaming sector. It would look at improving the creation process of games by leveraging its extensive development capabilities. The Japanese games developer has been around since 1960 and was the creator of popular consoles like the Sega Genesis, as well as the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
Sega sees a lot of potential in the future of the mobile gaming market. Haruki Satomi is CEO of Sega Sammy, the firm’s holding company. He believes that the acquisition will create a lot of synergies due to the “combination of both companies’ brands, characters, fanbase, as well as corporate culture and functionality.”
Rovio’s games are highly popular, downloaded more than five billion times. The Angry Birds franchise in particular is globally recognizable. The Israeli mobile gaming firm Playtika reportedly made a €750m ($823m) bid in January for Rovio before talks broke down.