Israeli Game Maker Playtika To Offer 683M Euros For Rovio Studios Acquisition

As the industry consolidates, Playtika Holding Corp increased its offer for Finnish game maker Rovio, best known for its "Angry Birds" franchise, to 683 million euros.

The offer values each Rovio share at 9.05 euros, which is roughly 60% higher than the company's closing price on January 19. It is also approximately 40 million euros higher than a previously undisclosed offer made by Israel's Playtika in November.

Based in Espoo, Finland Rovio has refused to comment. Before the offer was made public, its shares ended 2.5 percent lower at $5.67 on the Finnish bourse, while Playtika fell 2.6 percent in US trading.

Rovio has had a turbulent ride since going public in September 2017 at a price of $11.50 per share, and the company's growth remains overly reliant on the Angry Birds franchise, despite efforts to diversify with acquisitions such as Turkish Ruby Games in 2021.

After two years of pandemic-driven boom, the game maker is also caught in a broader industry slowdown, particularly in the mobile market.

According to estimates, global mobile game revenues will fall by more than 6% to $92.2 billion in 2022.

The Rovio bid is the latest sign of industry consolidation, with Microsoft in the process of acquiring Activision Blizzard for $69 billion and Sony Interactive Entertainment acquiring "Halo" videogame creator Bungie.

Playtika, a maker of casino-style games and poker and solitaire apps, announced last month that it would lay off 15% of its workforce. The company, whose shares were cut in half last year, is also merging studios.