SEGA Reportedly Close to Acquiring Angry Birds Developer Rovio for $1 Billion

SEGA, a outstanding Japanese multinational online game and leisure company, is allegedly approaching a deal to purchase Rovio Leisure, the Finnish firm that created the favored Offended Birds cell sport, for a sum near $1 billion, in response to The Wall Street Journal. If the continuing discussions proceed easily and at once, the acquisition might be accomplished as quickly as subsequent week.

Launched in 2009, Offended Birds set the usual for cell gaming throughout the early smartphone period. Within the sport, gamers make the most of a slingshot to propel birds over, underneath, and round obstacles to defeat inexperienced pigs which are attempting to steal their eggs. Rovio reported final yr that its sport catalog had reached a powerful milestone of 5 billion downloads, with Offended Birds being the primary cell sport to amass 1 billion downloads.

Replace by Stephen Totilo of Axios:

Regardless of the outstanding success of Offended Birds, Rovio has discovered it difficult to breed the identical stage of accomplishment with its subsequent releases. This has left the corporate inclined to acquisition by a bigger trade participant, particularly as its once-dominant franchise faces rising competitors from more moderen entrants out there.

With its headquarters in Shinagawa, Tokyo, SEGA operates worldwide branches in Irvine, California, and London. The company has developed a number of extremely profitable sport franchises, together with Sonic the Hedgehog, Complete Struggle, and Yakuza. Though SEGA is widely known for its ingenuity and innovation within the online game sector, it has encountered criticism in recent times for its strategic selections and the usual of its inventive work.

Rovio Leisure, established in 2003 by Helsinki College of Expertise college students Niklas Hed, Jarno Väkeväinen, and Kim Dikert, is located in Espoo, Finland, and maintains studios in Stockholm, Copenhagen, and Montreal.