‘Angry Birds’ Games Studio Rovio Agrees to $776 Million Sega Takeover

Patrick Frater
Updated ·3 min read
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Rovio, the Finnish games studio behind “Angry Birds” said on Monday that it had accepted a takeover offer from Sega Sammy, part of the Japanese consoles and games giant Sega. The deal values Rovio at EUR706 million ($776 million).

“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,” Rovio said in a statement. Further details of the offer will be published in early May and the deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2023.

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“Red and Sonic: two globally recognized and iconic characters made by two remarkably complementary companies, with a worldwide reach that spans mobile, PC/console, and beyond. Combining the strengths of Rovio and Sega presents an incredibly exciting future,” said Alexandre Pelletier-Normand, Rovio’s CEO.

“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 feel blessed to be able to announce such a transaction with Rovio, a company that owns ‘Angry Birds,’ which is loved across the world, and home to many skilled employees that support the company’s industry leading mobile game development and operating capabilities,” said Satomi Haruki, president and group CEO of Sega Sammy.

The offer says that Sega will pay EUR9.25 per Rovio share and EUR1.48 for outstanding Rovio share options. The companies explained that is a 63% premium to the EUR5.67 price at which share trading on the NASDAQ Helsinki stock market was suspended in January when talk of a bid from Israel’s Playtika emerged, and a 19% premium to the shares’ closing price on Friday.

That was rich enough see Rovio’s major institutional shareholders agree to the Sega offer. Documents show that investors holding 49.1% of the equity have signed irrevocable agreements to sell their holdings to Sega.

Rovio describes itself as “a global mobile-first games company” that develops, and publishes mobile games, as well as licenses the “Angry Birds” brand as consumer products, films and animations. These include 2016’s “The Angry Birds Movie” and its 2019 sequel, both distributed by Sony’s Columbia Pictures. Rovio reports that its titles have been downloaded 5 billion times.

Sega explains that it sees three main areas of collaboration between itself and Rovio. These include: utilization of Rovio’s know-how in live service mobile game operation (and its much admired Beacon platform) to bring Sega’s current and new titles to the global mobile gaming market; rapid expansion of both companies’ fanbase by sharing know-how and multi-media expansion of global characters; and cross-platform expansion of Rovio’s IP using Sega Corporation’s capabilities.

The documents released on Monday said that the takeover is not expected to have any near-term impact on Rovio’s operations, assets, employees or management team, although Sega will make appointments to the board of directors. Rovio will remain based in Finland.

In 2017, when Rovio was still a private company, it was reported that China’s Tencent made a takeover offer of some $3 billion. The approach was never confirmed.

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