Japanese gaming large Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. has introduced plans to amass the creator of the favored cell recreation Offended Birds – Rovio Leisure – in a deal value $776 million. The deal values every Rovio share at 9.25 euros, a 19% premium to Rovio’s Friday closing worth.
Sega Sammy will launch its tender provide bid on Could 8 and the deal is anticipated to be closed within the subsequent couple of months topic to some ‘customary situations’.
In accordance with information company Reuters, Rovio’s shares noticed a big surge, going up 18.8% in early European commerce following the announcement. Nonetheless, Sega Sammy’s shares declined by 4.2% the day previous to the tender provide announcement, after the corporate revealed its plans to amass Rovio.
Sega Sammy Holdings President and CEO Haruki Satomi, whereas talking concerning the acquisition in a press release mentioned, “Traditionally, as represented by the ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ sequence, Sega has launched numerous online game titles to varied gaming platforms. I’m assured that, by means of mixture of each firms’ manufacturers, characters, fanbase, in addition to company tradition and performance, there will likely be vital synergies created going ahead.”
Rovio CEO Alexandre Pelletier-Normand in a press release concerning the takeover mentioned “Our mission is to ‘Craft Pleasure’ and we’re thrilled on the thought of utilizing our experience and instruments to deliver much more pleasure to our gamers, enhancing and increasing Rovio’s and Sega’s vibrant IPs”
Earlier this yr, Rovio acquired a takeover provide from the Israeli Playtika Holding Corp, which valued the corporate at 683 million euros. Nonetheless, in March, Playtika introduced that the discussions concerning the takeover had ended.
Launched in 2009, Offended Birds rapidly turned a worldwide phenomenon. However the franchise began to lose momentum by 2014. The favored recreation additionally set a world file by changing into the primary cell recreation to be downloaded 1 billion instances.
Regardless of blended opinions from critics, the primary Offended Birds film launched in 2016 was an enormous business success, grossing over $350 million worldwide. Nonetheless, the second film failed to duplicate the success of its predecessor.