‘Angry Birds’ company is reportedly about to be sold for $1 billion... to Sega
by Umar Shakir from The Verge - All Posts on (#6ATFQ)
Image: Rovio Sega is reportedly close to buying Rovio Entertainment - the company that owns the Angry Birds mobile game franchise - for a whopping $1 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. Sega may lock in the big deal by early next week, according to people speaking with WSJ.
It's surprising to think that Sega - specifically, its parent company Sega Sammy Holdings - would want to spend so much on Rovio given the decline in popularity of the Angry Birds games. The original game was a smash success in 2009, but the franchise has seemingly fallen off since its 2014 peak, when Rovio reported falling profits and layoffs.
In 2016, Rovio tried a movie adaptation, The Angry Birds Movie, which was a box office success and is still the seventh highest...