Japanese gaming large Sega has confirmed that it’s shopping for Finland’s Rovio in an all-cash deal price €706 million ($775 million).

Information first emerged back in January that Israeli cell gaming firm Playtika had tabled a €750 million ($810 million) bid for Rovio, although talks collapsed final month with no causes offered by both firm. Rovio did, nevertheless, affirm that it was nonetheless in talks with different events, with rumors rising over the weekend that Sonic the Hedgehog-maker Sega was within the combine.

Now, the deal is official, with Rovio noting that it expects the deal to shut in Q2 of its present fiscal 12 months, which means a while within the subsequent couple of months — topic to “sure customary circumstances.”

Sega’s supply represents a 63.1% premium on Rovio’s closing worth on January 19, the final buying and selling date earlier than experiences first emerged of a possible acquisition, and a 19% premium on Rovio’s last closing worth on Friday, April 14.

The Indignant Birds firm

Based in 2003, Rovio emerged as one of many main success tales from the European know-how sphere. Whereas the corporate had produced dozens of video games earlier than the arrival of Android and iOS, it was the burgeoning smartphone revolution that catapulted Rovio into the mainstream consciousness, with Indignant Birds becoming a global hit and franchise spanning everything from toys and cookbooks to movies and a TV show.

Rovio went public in 2017, hitting the Nasdaq Helsinki to a considerably lukewarm reception and a $1 billion valuation. Within the intervening years, the corporate’s shares have been largely in decline, typically sitting at round half of their IPO worth. So it maybe was little shock that Rovio had began purchasing itself round to potential suitors.

With Rovio underneath its wing, Sega says it plans to “speed up the event” of its personal current video games, in addition to “generate synergies” between Sega and Rovio’s manufacturers. Particularly, plainly Rovio’s expertise in so-called “reside service” cell gaming is what appealed to Sega, which refers video games designed to be performed kind of indefinitely by common content material updates to maintain gamers . Furthermore, Sega stated that Rovio’s experience can assist it develop Sega’s present and new video games in additional markets, significantly in Europe and North America.

On the flip-side, Sega stated that it’s going to use its cross-platform experience to allow Rovio to develop past cell gaming, which presumably means to consoles and / or internet browsers.

So this deal successfully permits Sega to reinforce its cell gaming presence whereas concurrently permitting Rovio to maneuver within the different route.

“Among the many quickly rising world gaming market, the cell gaming market has particularly excessive potential, and it has been SEGA’s long-term aim to speed up its enlargement on this area,” stated Haruki Satomi, president and group CEO of Sega’s father or mother firm Sega Sammy Holdings, in a press launch. “I’m assured that, by mixture of each corporations’ manufacturers, characters, fanbase, in addition to company tradition and performance, there will likely be important synergies created going ahead.”