Sega might buy Angry Birds maker Rovio for $1B

Sega parent company Sega Sammy Holdings is closing in on a deal to acquire Rovio Entertainment, the Finnish mobile game maker behind Angry Birds, in a deal worth $1 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. That deal could be completed next week, according to The Journal.

Rovio is best known for Angry Birdsthe physics puzzle game released for iOS in 2009. Rovio has delivered multiple sequels, spin-offs and tie-ins with other brands, including Star Wars, Transformers and the animated movie Rio. Sega and Rovio also teamed up in 2015 to bring Sonic the Hedgehog characters to the game Angry Birds epic, a turn based RPG. An animated series and two feature films featuring Angry Birds characters were also released.

The worldwide success of Angry Birds has not translated to Rovio’s other games, including an action role-playing game Darkfire heroes and colorful matching games Murders in small towns And Sugar explosion. Sega’s current mobile game lineup includes a variety of Sonic the Hedgehog running games and retro games from the Sega Genesis era.

If the Sega-Rovio deal goes through, it would be yet another acquisition of a billion-dollar mobile game studio from a major game publisher. In 2021, Electronic Arts acquired Glu Mobile and Playdemic for $2.1 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively. In 2022, Take-Two Interactive spent a whopping $12.7 billion on Zynga. Microsoft hopes to take over Candy Crush creator King this year, as part of Activision Blizzard’s $68.7 billion acquisition.