A new report by The Wall Street Journal claims that SEGA is nearing a deal to acquire the creators behind the Angry Birds game, Rovio Entertainment, for around $1 billion.
According to the report, the deal could be finalized by early next week, assuming that the deal doesn’t “break down or drag out”. This also isn’t the first time the company was close to being acquired. Earlier this year, there were talks for Rovio Entertainment to be purchased by Israel-based Playtika Holding Corp. for more than $800 million. Those talks, however, ended without a deal in place back in March.
Despite the huge success that Angry Birds generated, Rovio Entertainment has been unable to replicate anything close since.
According to Rovio, Angry Birds was the first mobile game to be downloaded 1 billion times and recently hit a milestone of 5 billion downloads across its [Rovio’s] game catalog.
Such an acquisition would be a huge move for SEGA, allowing the company to get a stronger foothold within the mobile market. SEGA has already expressed it sees mobile gaming to “strengthen global mobile and online games.”
With its strong intellectual properties, SEGA could use Rovio to easily bolster its mobile game offerings. Though Insider Gaming has reached out to both parties, SEGA nor Rovio Entertainment has yet to officially comment on the report.
What do you think of SEGA acquiring Angry Birds developer Rovio Entertainment?
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