Sega is reportedly close to acquiring Angry Birds developer Rovio Entertainment for about $1 billion. Naturally, the gaming community has been taken aback by these recent rumors. Indeed, it’s quite shocking that Sega would invest so much in Rovio despite the decline in popularity of the Angry Birds games.

Interestingly, neither Sega nor Rovio has made an official announcement yet related to the $1 billion deal. However, the rumors suggest an official announcement will be released within a week. Continue reading to find out more about the Sega and Rovio $1 billion deal.

Sega rumored to acquire Rovio Entertainment with a $1 billion deal

According to The Wall Street Journal. Sega may lock in the big deal with Rovio by early next week. Interestingly, Rovio was in talks to be acquired by Israeli mobile company Playtika for $800 million. However, these negotiations ended last month with no acquisition taking place.

Although the Sega and Rovio $1 billion deal seem too good to be true, there is no confirmation of the rumor being false. Furthermore, Sega has acquired a few companies over the past few years, including Company of Heroes developer Relic Entertainment, Two Point Campus developer Two Point Studios, and most notably Persona developer Atlus.

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Therefore, Sega might be planning to acquire Rovio Entertainment, especially when Playtika is out. Interestingly, the studio removed the Android version of Angry Birds and renamed the iOS version, back in February. They claimed that the immense popularity of the 2009 mega-hit was severely impacting the business of other games.

To this Angry Birds community manager Shawn Buckelew said, “If those other games do not improve and grow, then the outlook of the entire company changes. It’s harder to create new games, or work on new projects. I’m sure that’s not something you would want.”

Interestingly, Rovio’s original Angry Birds game was the first mobile game to reach 1 billion downloads. Moreover, the Angry Birds developers confirmed that its combined library of games had reached 5 billion downloads as of last year. Therefore, Sega planning to acquire Rovio and such an enormous Angry Birds fanbase with this rumored $1 billion deal.

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