Sega reveals plans to buy Rovio, the makers of Angry Birds
Sega has announced its intention to acquire Rovio, the company that is mainly known for developing the Angry Birds gaming franchise on mobile.
The Japanese company Sega shot to prominence in the 1980s as one of the leading manufacturers of video game consoles alongside Nintendo, Sony and latterly Microsoft. However, since the Dreamcast was discontinued in 2001, Sega has focused on developing and publishing games for other company's systems.
Sega's mascot, and arguably its biggest and best franchise, is Sonic the Hedgehog.
Rovio is a Finnish company that has overseen the Angry Birds franchise since its inception in 2009. Although it has worked on other games as well, Rovio is very much known as the Angry Birds developer first and foremost. The fowl-flinging games were so popular that two feature film adaptations have been made, releasing into cinemas in 2016 and 2019 respectively, as well as several animated TV shows.
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And now for the business bit! It has been announced that «SEGA aims to acquire the entirety of Rovio’s outstanding shares and options at EUR 9.25 per share and EUR 1.48 per option, or EUR 706 million in total». If you were wondering, by today's exchange rate, that would be around £6.23 million here in the UK.
This has been described in the press materials as «a friendly takeover, as Rovio’s board of directors has agreed to, and has expressed support towards the Tender Offer».
The official announcement adds: «SEGA aims to accelerate its growth in the global gaming market and increase its
Read more on radiotimes.com
