The developer of the puzzle game Angry Birds, Finland’s Rovio Entertainment Oyj, has received a 706 million euro ($776 million) offer, according to the Japanese gaming titan Sega.

The transaction would be for all of Rovio’s outstanding shares and options, valued at 9.25 euros per share, or around 19% more than the stock’s closing price just prior to the announcement, according to Sega. The options are valued at 1.48 euros.

The business also stated that the offer had the support of Rovio’s board.

The announcement released on Monday claims that more than 5 billion downloads of Rovio games have been made. Meanwhile, the Angry Birds brand has been licensed for use in other consumer and entertainment goods.

Tokyo-based The Sonic the Hedgehog and Total War game series, as well as consoles like the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, which gained popularity outside of Japan in the 1990s, are Sega’s most well-known products. Sega was founded in 1960.

It stated that it will make greater use of Rovio’s live-operated mobile game development skills to speed up the creation of mobile-optimized versions of its current games in order to increase its market share in the mobile gaming industry.

The Rovio deal was reportedly predicted to be worth roughly $1 billion by The Wall Street Journal in the past.

At 11:00 a.m. London time, shares of Rovio were up 17.8%.

Prior to the announcement of the acquisition, shares of Sega Sammy, the holding company created from Sega’s 2004 merger with game developer Sammy, closed 4.2% down.

“Among the rapidly growing global gaming market, the mobile gaming market has especially high potential, and it has been SEGA’s long-term goal to accelerate its expansion in this field,” said Sega Sammy’s Group CEO, Haruki Satomi, in a statement.

He claimed that Angry Birds is “loved all over the world.” “I am confident that there will be significant synergies created going forward through the combination of both companies’ brands, characters, fan bases, as well as corporate culture and functionality.”

Red, the main character in Angry Birds, and Sonic the Hedgehog, according to Rovio CEO Alexandre Pelletier-Normand, are “two globally recognized and iconic characters made by two remarkably complementary companies, with a worldwide reach that spans mobile, PC/console, and beyond.”

(Adapted from JapanTime.co.jp)

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