Reuters
- Sega is nearing a deal to buy "Angry Birds" game creator Rovio Entertainment.
- The entertainment conglomerate is expected to pay $1 billion if the deal is finalized, according to WSJ.
- After much success launching "Angry Birds" in 2009, the Finnish company reported losses in 2019.
Japanese video game conglomerate Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. is in talks to acquire Rovio Entertainment, the company behind the popular "Angry Birds" mobile games.
The potential $1 billion sale was first reported by Wall Street Journal on Friday, and could be finalized in the coming week.
Rovio, a Finnish company that went public in 2017, has experienced vast success from its "Angry Birds" mobile game franchise. Since its debut in 2009, "Angry Birds" has inspired multiple spinoff games as well as TV shows and movies. In 2019, Rovio launched an augmented reality version of the famous mobile game.
Sega Sammy Holdings — which was formed by a merger of Sega and Sammy Corporation in 2004 — is best known for its "Sonic the Hedgehog" games and films.
According to Rovio, its original "Angry Birds" game — which featured a simple objective of using a slingshot to fling birds in an attempt to defeat evil green pigs — was the first to be downloaded 1 billion times, per the Journal.
Ten years after the launch of the game, Rovio reported a 48% drop in its quarterly profit year-on-year, and blamed the decline on difficulty obtaining new players.
According to WSJ, Rovio eyed a potential sale to its Israeli rival Playtika for around $800 million, but negotiations ended in March.