Finnish mobile gaming firm Rovio's board has recommended that its share- and option holders approve a buyout offer by Japanese gaming giant Sega.
Sega's parent company, Sega Sammy Holdings, has offered Rovio shareholders a price of 9.25 euros per share and option holders 1.48 euros per option, according to Finnish news service STT.
The final value of such a deal would amount to 706 million euros, according to news agency Reuters' calculations.
Best known for its game character Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega has been a major player in the video game industry for decades.
Rovio, meanwhile, is known for the Angry Birds mobile game and franchise.
Lower than reported offer
Over the weekend the Wall Street Journal reported that Sega would offer around 900 million euros to acquire Rovio, but new reports suggest the offer appears to be considerably less.
The sum is, however, more than a preliminary 683 million euro buyout offer made by Israeli gaming firm Playtika at the beginning of the year. Rovio announced plans last month that it would not be selling to Playtika and was still seeking a buyer.
Rovio games have been downloaded more than five billion times, according to the company, which made its debut in 2009 with the release of the Angry Birds game. The franchise sparked new iterations of the game, merchandising as well as feature-length movies featuring the Angry Birds characters.
Angry Birds became the bestselling paid app on the Apple App Store chart in 2010 but its popularity began to fade around 2012. The Helsinki-based firm has not managed to create other hit games and appears to have struggled to keep up with competition in the industry. In 2021, it reported a 50 percent slump in profits.
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