A mannequin of Offended Birds character ‘Purple’ sits on show contained in the reception space of the Rovio Leisure Oy headquarters in Espoo, Finland, on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019.
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Japanese gaming large Sega introduced Monday it has made a 706 million euro ($776 million) provide for the maker of the Offended Birds puzzle sport, Finland’s Rovio Leisure Oyj.
The deal can be for the whole lot of Rovio’s excellent shares and choices, valuing the shares at 9.25 euros per share, a roughly 19% premium to their closing value earlier than the announcement, Sega stated. It is valuing the choices at 1.48 euros.
Rovio’s board is in help of the provide, the corporate added.
Rovio video games have been downloaded over 5 billion occasions, in keeping with the assertion Monday. In the meantime its Offended Birds franchise has been licensed into different leisure and shopper merchandise.
Tokyo-based Sega was based in 1960 and is best-known for its Sonic the Hedgehog and Whole Conflict franchises, as effectively consoles together with the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, widespread exterior of Japan within the Nineties.
It needs to make use of Rovio to broaden its presence within the cellular gaming market and stated it might use its live-operated cellular sport growth capabilities to spice up growth of mobile-based variations of its current video games.
The Wall Road Journal had beforehand reported the Rovio deal was anticipated to be value round $1 billion.
Rovio shares had been up 17.8% at 11:00 a.m. London time.
Shares of Sega Sammy, the holding firm of Sega following its 2004 merger with video games maker Sammy, closed 4.2% decrease on Monday earlier than the acquisition was introduced.
“Among the many quickly rising international gaming market, the cellular gaming market has particularly excessive potential, and it has been SEGA’s long-term aim to speed up its enlargement on this discipline,” stated Sega Sammy’s Group CEO, Haruki Satomi, in a press release.
Offended Birds is “cherished the world over,” he stated. “I’m assured that, by way of mixture of each corporations’ manufacturers, characters, fanbase, in addition to company tradition and performance, there might be vital synergies created going ahead.”
Rovio CEO Alexandre Pelletier-Normand stated Purple, the lead character in Offended Birds, and Sonic the Hedgehog had been “two globally acknowledged and iconic characters made by two remarkably complementary corporations, with a worldwide attain that spans cellular, PC/console, and past.”