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Pavel Kotov
Japanese conglomerate Sega Sammy Holdings has almost reached a deal to buy the Finnish Rovio, which developed the mobile hit Angry Birds, for about $1 billion. Wall Street Journal citing own sources. If negotiations do not break down and drag out, the deal could be announced early next week.
Image source: angrybirds.com
Sega Sammy Holdings originated in 2004 from a merger between arcade maker Sammy and game developer Sega. Simple yet addicting, Angry Birds proved to be a groundbreaking mobile game back in 2009, when smartphones were just starting to catch on. The player, using a slingshot, tries to hit green pigs hiding behind various structures with colorful birds. It was the first mobile game to reach 1 billion downloads, and last year it passed 5 billion.
The Finnish hit developer Rovio built on the success of the original game with several sequels, an animated series and two feature films. In 2017, the company went public in hopes of gaining momentum. Rovio failed to repeat the success of Angry Birds, and about a month ago the company entered into negotiations on the takeover of the Israeli Playtika for €750 million, but the dialogue was not crowned with a deal.
Consumer spending on mobile games fell 6.4% last year to $92.2 billion, according to Newzoo BV, about half of total gaming software sales, with consoles and PCs accounting for the other half.
