A major acquisition in mobile gaming is looming on the horizon. Israeli giant Playtika has made an offer to buy Finnish developer Rovio, best known for the Angry Birds franchise.
What happened?
Playtika submitted a new proposal to Rovio’s board of directors to acquire the company for €9.05 per share in cash, according to an official announcement. This is an improvement over the previous private bid of €8.5 per share that Playtika made in November.
Given that Rovio currently holds 82.9 million shares, the newly proposed deal values the Finnish developer at around €750 million. But according to Reuters, Playtika is now offering €683 million for the Angry Birds maker.
“We firmly believe the combination of Rovio’s renowned IP and scale of its user base, together with our best-in-class monetization and game operations capabilities, will create tremendous value for our shareholders,” Playtika CEO Robert Antokol said in a statement.
Other details about the proposed acquisition remain unclear. It all depends on whether Rovio’s board of directors approves the offer. So no agreement between the two companies has yet been concluded.
The bigger picture
- The €9.05 per share bid is 60% higher than Rovio’s closing price on January 19. One of the main issues investors have with the company is its reliance on its main franchise, Angry Birds.
- As reported by Bloomberg, Rovio is now trading 50% below its public offering price in 2017. So it has to not only expand but also diversify its gaming portfolio. That’s why the company announced last year that it has 10 new titles in its development pipeline.
- Despite the setbacks, Rovio reported some record quarters in terms of revenue in 2022. In April, CEO Alex Pelletier-Normand also noted that the company was ready to make more M&A deals in the future.
- As for Playtika, the Israeli company began a restructuring last year that led to mass layoffs (600+ jobs were cut in December) and the closure of studios, including the Helsinki-based team Seriously. It is known for one of the publisher’s biggest hits, Best Friends, with a lifetime revenue of over $430 million.