Sega will launch a friendly offer to buy the Finnish company Rovioknown for its Angry Birds franchise, for about 700 million euros (about 770 million dollars), the two companies reported on Monday. video game.
The offer, which represents a 19% premium to Rovio’s share price at last Friday’s close, is part of the “long-term goal” of the brand, known for its game sonicto expand into the mobile gaming market, Sega and Rovio said in a joint statement.
After the worldwide success of angry Birds At the beginning of the 2010s, the growth of Rovio, specialized in mobile phone games, was stalled by the dependence on this license and the lack of new products.
The group, which went public in 2017, had a modest revenue of 317.7 million euros (about $348 million) last year, with net profit of about 31 million euros ($34 million).
The address of Rovio, which employs about 500 peoplehas recommended to shareholders that they accept the offer of 9.25 euros per share.
Combining the strengths of Rovio and Sega represents an incredibly exciting future,” said the Canadian head of the Finnish group, Alexandre Pelletier-Normand, quoted in the statement.
Sega wants to launch the acquisition in early May and close it in the third quarter of the year, the group said.
