Sega is acquiring Angry Birds developer Rovio in a bid to expand its mobile gaming capabilities, among other merchandising improvements.
Sega buys Angry Birds maker Rovio for $776 million
A takeover of Rovio Entertainment by Sega Corporation has officially begun today, with the former offering approximately €706 million for outstanding shares and options. It’s a calculated move that the home of the blue hedgehog believes will help both companies expand their respective fan bases with more multimedia capabilities.
“It has been an honor to join Rovio and I am proud to have seen Angry Birds grow with the release of new games, series and films,” said Alexandre Pelletier-Normand, CEO of Rovio, in the press release. “Less well-known, but equally impressive, is our industry-leading proprietary technology platform, Beacon, with 20 years of expertise, enabling close-knit teams to develop world-class GaaS [Games as a Service] products.”
Sega is particularly interested in that Beacon platform. According to them, there is "… a lot of potential and a lot of users that can be reached." Rovio's Angry Birds series is still hugely popular on smartphones, so it makes sense that Sega would want to leverage that experience and infrastructure for its mobile titles.
