Rovio open to more M&A deals in future, says it wants to make “right acquisitions”

Rovio is not known for actively purchasing other studios. However, the Angry Birds developer is now looking for potential M&A targets, saying that these deals will be an important part of its strategy.

In an interview with PocketGamer.biz, Rovio CEO Alex Pelletier-Normand said that the company is “definitely looking at more acquisitions in the near future.”

He noted that Rovio wants to make the “right acquisitions.” This means being picky in choosing targets and buying studios that would benefit from such deals. “There are always new companies working on exciting new products with new angles, some we haven’t realised ourselves, and those are the sizes of companies we’re looking at,” Pelletier-Normand said, adding that M&A deals are an important part of the company’s strategy going forward.

The Rovio CEO cited Ruby Games, a Turkish studio it snapped up last year, as an example of the right acquisition. The goal of this deal was to enter the area of hyper-casual games and gain a new audience through Ruby’s main hit Hunter Assassin.

“We thought we could learn a lot from, and they could learn a lot from us — especially with regards to entering the hybrid casual genre,” Pelletier-Normand noted.

Rovio reported record games revenue of €276.4 million for 2021, with Angry Birds 2 reaching €107.9 million in bookings. Earlier this month, the company also surpassed 5 billion downloads across its gaming portfolio.