SEGA Buys Angry Birds Maker for $775 Million | Push Square
Update: And just like that, SEGA has purchased Rovio, the mobile developer behind Angry Birds. The final bid is slightly less than had originally been reported: $775 million. Considering the Finnish firm’s turnover totals about $300 million a year, this deal looks like a snip for the Sonic the Hedgehog publisher.
As we’re all intimately familiar with by now, these acquisitions take a little time to clear, and SEGA’s not expecting the deal to be officially finalised until around the end of September. Unlike certain other takeovers in the industry, however, this one is unlikely to be under too much scrutiny.
It sounds like the Japanese company wants to use Rovio’s expertise to help expand its footprint in the smartphone space: “Through the acquisition, the company aims to take-in Rovio's live-operated mobile game development capabilities and expertise in mobile game operation, to accelerate the development of mobile-compatible and multi-platform-supported version of SEGA’s existing game IPs, thereby strengthening and further accelerating global expansion of SEGA’s game portfolio.”
Obviously this is similar language to what Sony used when it purchased Bungie, so this seems to be a common theme among major publishers right now.
Original Article: Forget about the Angry Birds, as there could be a few Angry Hedgehogs on the horizon – or something. According to the Wall Street Journal, publishing giant and former platform holder SEGA is on the brink of acquiring Angry Birds maker Rovio for $1 billion. The era of industry consolidation continues…
According to “people familiar with the matter”, the Sonic the Hedgehog maker could seal the deal as early as next week, assuming talks don’t collapse between now and then. Obviously the
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