Israel’s Playtika and the “Angry Birds” publisher Rovio are starts sale talk

The Israeli social gaming company has made a $735 million bid for the Finland-based Rovio.

Rovio Entertainment, the Israeli firm behind the online casino games and shooting simulator 1V1, has started informal negotiations regarding a transaction with Rovio Entertainment, the Finnish video game developer behind Angry Birds.

In the most recent consolidation effort in the gaming industry, Playtika has made an offer to buy Rovio for €9.05 ($9.74) per share, or €683 ($735 million). When the bid was made on January 19, it represented a premium of almost 60% above Rovio’s closing share price. As a result of the proposed sale, Rovio shares have since risen and are currently trading at about €8.61 ($9.27).

“Pursuant to its fiduciary duties, the board of Rovio continues to explore all strategic alternatives in order to reach the best possible outcome for Rovio and its shareholders,” the company said in a statement. “There can be no assurance that the strategic review and the preliminary non-binding discussions will result in any cash or other tender offer or any other transaction or the pricing of any such possible transaction. Rovio will release further information at an appropriate time.”

The acquisition of Rovio by Playtika is the latest consolidation initiative in the gaming sector. Activision Blizzard, the company behind Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, is being acquired by Microsoft for $69 billion. Bungie Inc., the company behind Halo, was acquired by Sony Interactive Entertainment last year for $3.6 billion.

Playtika is conducting some worldwide consolidation on its own. The corporation announced last month that it was eliminating 600 jobs, or 15% of its workforce, as it consolidated studios to concentrate on its “core goods.”

Since the COVID outbreak, the market for mobile games has fallen precipitously. Global mobile gaming revenue is expected to total $92.2 billion in 2022, a more than 6% decrease from the previous year, according to projections by gaming analytics company NewZoo.

Rovio’s signature game, Angry Birds, has been a huge international success, spawning a merchandising and media empire, including two Angry Birds films. But the company has struggled to diversify, despite acquisitions, such as Denmark’s Darkfire Games in 2020 and the Turkish Ruby Games in 2021.