Japan’s Sega Sammy Holdings is planning to acquire Finland’s Rovio Entertainment for 706 million euros ($776 million) to bolster its mobile gaming business.
Sega Sammy will offer 9.25 euros for each share of the company behind the mobile game Angry Birds, a 19 percent premium over Friday’s closing price, in its tender offer bid set to be launched around May 8.
“In the rapidly growing global gaming market, the mobile gaming market has especially high potential, and it has been Sega’s long-term goal to accelerate its expansion in this field,” Sega Sammy CEO Haruki Satomi said in a statement.
The Sega Sammy announcement said Rovio’s board of directors supported the tender offer, making the acquisition a friendly takeover.
“Combining the strengths of Rovio and Sega presents an incredibly exciting future,” Rovio CEO Alexandre Pelletier-Normand said.
Based on Rovio’s short-term earnings prospects, the offer was good for shareholders of the Finnish group even though it ascribed limited value to the company’s pipeline of new games, Inderes analyst Atte Riikola said.
Rovio received a 683 million euro takeover bid in January from Israeli peer Playtika Holding, but the talks were called off last month.
