Rovio’s purchase price would be about one billion dollars, or about 900 million euros.
Rovio is a game company founded in 2003, known especially for the Angry Birds game. EPA / AOP
The Japanese video game company Sega is about to buy the Finnish mobile game developer Rovio, according to an American magazine The Wall Street Journal.
Rovio’s purchase price would be about one billion dollars, or about 900 million euros. According to the WSJ, Sega could get the deals agreed upon as early as next week, unless the negotiations are interrupted or prolonged.
Rovio is a game company founded in 2003, best known for its Angry Birds game released in 2009, which has spawned several sequels and two films of the same name.
The game was a success and its popularity exploded, spreading around the world. According to Rovio, Angry Birds would be the first mobile game that has been downloaded a billion times. According to the company, last year it reached the milestone of 5 billion downloads in total.
However, according to the WSJ, Rovio has failed to replicate the huge success of Angry Birds with subsequent games. According to the magazine, Rovio is in trouble, as new game companies have displaced the already aging Angry Birds game series in recent years.
Rovio’s turnover in 2021 was EUR 286.2 million and profit was EUR 43.7 million. EUR 276.4 million of turnover came directly from the company’s games.
Rovio has also held trade negotiations with other buyer candidates. However, in March, the trade negotiations between the Israeli game company Playtika and Rovio ended without results, says Reuters.