Japanese game developer and publisher Sega has announced the intent to acquire Angry Birds maker Rovio for $776 million. If the deal goes through, it would see Sega paying just shy of a 20% premium (9.25 euros per share) on what shares were listed for at the time of the announcement. Rovio’s board is in support of the offer.
With over 5 billion downloads to their name, Finland’s Rovio Entertainment is one of the strongest independent mobile game makers still out there with Supercell being acquired by Tencent in 2016 (for around $8.6B), Zynga being acquired by Take Two Interactive last year (for $12.7B), and Microsoft citing Candy Crush maker King as one of their main interests in acquiring Activision Blizzard. Mobile gaming is estimated to account for over 50% of global gaming revenue this year with its playerbase continuing to grow exponentially.
Rovio shares jumped up 17.8% upon the Wall Street Journal breaking the deal and mentioning that it was expected to be around $1B, while Sega Sammy shares closed 4.2% lower. After the deal was officially announced Sega Sammy’s CEO Haruki Satomi stated, “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.” Sega stakeholders hope Satomi is right, as the deal to acquire Rovio is equivalent to nearly a quarter of Sega Sammy’s overall valuation at $3.46B.
Image from: Sega/Rovio
