2023-08-10 13:29:00

It is a broad green light that has been given to the takeover offer of the developer and publisher of video games, Rovio, by the Japanese Sega, announced this Thursday the Finnish company. This takeover was subject to the approval of more than 90% of the shareholders. The offer, which values ​​Rovio at more than 700 million euros ($770 million), was finally approved almost unanimously (96.3%), according to a press release from the Finnish group. “All conditions are met”points out Rovio, the two parties can now finalize the takeover.

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For Sega, this acquisition in Europe is part of the « long terme » in a growth strategy in the video game market on mobile media, explained the CEO of the Japanese group Haruki Satomi when announcing the takeover project in April. It’s a great operation for the Japanese who thus acquires the owner of the cult franchise, “Angry Birds”. In 2016, the film “Angry Birds”, produced by Sony, had indeed been a very big worldwide success and generated some 350 million dollars in revenue. Rovio also owns several “Angry Birds” theme parks around the world and owns the rights to all spin-off publications, which are released in a dozen languages.

Rovio prisoner of his success

But the publisher, created in 2003 by three computer science students in Helsinki, remained a prisoner of its success at the turn of the 2010s. Going public in 2017, Rovio failed to sign another flagship game. In 2022, the group, which employs 500 people, achieved a modest turnover of 317.7 million euros, and a net profit of 31.4 million euros.

Conversely, this acquisition is for Sega, which has been called Sega Sammy Holdings since 2004, a means of compensating for the decline of its business of arcade games and pachinko machines (cross between pinball machine and slot machine) in the Japan which has accelerated in recent years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Games on smartphones are therefore seen as a lifeline by the group, which achieved an annual turnover of 381.5 billion yen (regarding 2.6 billion euros) last year, for a profit net of 31.5 billion yen (214 million euros).

Especially since the takeover of Rovio also allows Sega to get hold of the Finnish mobile gaming platform, Beacon, Rovio’s other main asset. It is part of a vast global restructuring of a very lucrative sector, valued at several hundred billion dollars.

But this acquisition also marks the end of the independence of the Finnish flagships of mobile video games, with in particular the takeover of Supercell (“Clash of Clans”, “Hay Day”…) by Japanese companies and then by the Chinese Tencent in 2016. Finland nevertheless retains a significant independent video game publisher: the console game specialist Remedy Entertainment and the “Alan Wake” franchise.

(With AFP)

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