As we previously reported, SEGA’s parent company Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. (SSHD) entered into an agreement to acquire Rovio, and SEGA Europe has since made a voluntary recommended cash offer to the shareholders of Rovio to tender all their shares and the option holders of Rovio to tender all their options in Rovio to SEGA Sammy Holdings. Basically, SEGA will be acquiring Rovio.
Haruki Satomi, President and CEO of SSHD, and Shuji Utsumi, Co-COO, President of Consumer Game and Transmedia of Sega Corporation, have visited Helsinki to meet with media and employees of Rovio. Together with Rovio’s Chair of the Board Kim Ignatius and CEO Alexandre Pelletier-Normand, they discussed the strategic rationale of the Offer and the benefits of the combination for the future development of Rovio’s IPs and growth.
According to Haruki Satomi, among 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. He feels blessed to be able to announce such a transaction with Rovio, owners of the Angry Birds brand. Through the combination of both companies’ brands, characters, fanbases, as well as corporate culture and functionality, there will be significant synergies created going forward.
Alexandre Pelletier-Normand, CEO of Rovio, expressed excitement about a future together and is optimistic about potential synergies between SEGA and Rovio. Both the management team and employees are enthusiastic about the offer. Alexandre noted that SEGA is a company with a long history of developing and nurturing vibrant IP’s, and as the creators and custodians of the iconic Angry Birds brand, this was very important to Rovio. Alexandre also confirmed the purchase would see the Angry Birds series brought to consoles and PC.
SSHD presented its full-year financial results last week in Tokyo, which showed that the SSHD group is well-positioned for this acquisition. The recording of the press conference is available at the Offer website. A tender offer document with detailed information on the Offer is expected to be published on or about May 5, 2023, and the offer period under the Offer is expected to commence on or about May 8, 2023. More information about the Offer is available at https://blueoffer.tenderoffer.fi/en/.
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I honestly do not care about Angry Birds. Sega does need to make more console games though. They can’t survive on JUST SONIC.
I wish Sega would waste that money on Wonder Boy creators Westone Bit so they can fully own it.
Agreed.
Meh. Tho only decent mobile game they had was SEGA Heroes and they shut that down. SEGA should be looking at releasing more console games, including re-releases of classes like Skies of Arcadia.
Well, let’s see what they can do here. I’m not a mobile gamer, so this acquisition doesn’t excite me. I also think this would’ve felt like a bigger story about five years ago. Currently, I’d like for SEGA to remaster games in their back-catalog outside of the Sonic label, like their contemporaries Capcom and Square Enix.