Sega Sammy Holdings has confirmed that it has reached an agreement to stay with Roviothe company that created the popular Angry Birds, for 775 million dollars (706 million euros). The Japanese holding company will begin the purchase process over the next month, and if everything goes according to plan, the operation that will lead Sega to absorb Rovio Entertainment Ovj will close during the current quarter. That is, before the end of the second quarter of your current fiscal year.
Under the terms of the agreement reached, Sega will pay 9.25 euros for each of Rovio’s shares and 1.48 euros for each of its stock options. The purchase is going to take place on friendly terms, and Rovio’s Board of Directors has already voted in favor of the deal.
Haruki Satomi, President and CEO of the Sega Group, has highlighted that «among the rapidly growing global gaming market, the mobile gaming market especially has high potential, and Sega has a long-term goal to accelerate its expansion in this field«. In addition to welcoming the company, Satomi has also noted that he is confident that “Through the combination of both companies’ brands, characters, fan base, corporate culture and functionality, significant synergies will be created going forward.«.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Finnish company Rovio announced on February 6 that it was going to start a strategic review of the company. In addition, the company confirmed that it had entered into non-binding discussions with various entities and parties. Among them, with Playtika Holding Corp, which had offered to buy the company by paying just over nine euros for each of its shares.
Despite the fact that everything seemed to be going well, on March 22, Rovio announced that it had broken its negotiations with said company. The company’s shareholders did not welcome the news, and the value of its shares then recorded its biggest drop since last August.
However, Rovio’s shares are already up 28% this year, and only last Friday they were up 1.1% on the Helsinki stock exchange. They then reached 7.78 euros, which has raised Rovio’s valuation to 645 million euros, which in dollars would be approximately 710 million).
As for Sega Sammy’s shares, buoyed by its strong forecasts and revenue this year, the company has seen the value of its titles rise 33% so far in 2023. Its market value has risen as a result to the 4.8 billion dollars.
Sega Sammy was born in 2004 as a result of the merger between the coin-activated game machine company Sammy Corp and Sega Corp, the manufacturer of video games that created, among others, the popular Sonic. The combined company offers a wide range of entertainment products, including arcade games, toys and animated video content.
Angry Birds, created by Rovio in 2009, became an extremely popular mobile game in a short time, and is the first to reach a billion downloads. According to the company, last year it reached 5,000 million downloads. Rovio is headquartered, and is listed, in Finland.
It went public at the end of 2017, hoping to get more help for its growth plans. But that hasn’t been the case, because they haven’t been able to replicate the success they achieved with Angry Birds, which has put them in the right position to be bought by a rival.
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