Angry Birds’ Rovio shares up 17% amid Sega acquisition deal

Japanese gaming giant Sega has made an offer to acquire the maker of the Angry Birds puzzle game Rovio Entertainment Oyj for $776 million.

If successful, the deal will see Sega acquire all of Rovio’s outstanding shares and options at a price of $9.25 per share, which is 19% higher than the stock’s closing price before the news broke.

In addition, Sega is valuing Rovio’s options at 1.48

Angry Birds popularity

Rovio’s board is reportedly in support of the deal. The Wall Street Journal had previously reported that the deal would be worth around $1 billion.

So far Rovio games have been downloaded more than 5 billion times although its Angry Birds franchise has been licensed into other entertainment and consumer products. This places the company as one of the most valued gaming companies in Finland.

Sega’s plans after acquiring Rovio

Sega was founded in 1960 and is mostly known for its Total War Saga: Troy and Sonic the Hedgehog franchises. It also offers several consoles including the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, which was popular outside of Japan in the 1990s.

Sega plans to use Rovio to expand its presence in the European mobile gaming market. It also plans to use its live-operated mobile game development capabilities to improve the development of existing mobile-based games.

Commenting about the deal, Sega Sammy’s Group CEO, Haruki Satomi, in a statement has said:

“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… Angry Birds is loved across the world. 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 Sammy share price

While Rovio share price surged by more than 17% after the news broke out, the shares of Sega Sammy, the holding company of Sega surged by more than 4%.