Reuters: Playtika wants to buy Rovio for $737.5 million
Reuters has learned that the Israeli holding company Playtika has made a proposal to consolidate with the Finnish developer and publisher of games Rovio, best known for the Angry Birds franchise.
The owners of the Finnish company are offered to sell the asset for €683 million ($737.5 million). This is 60% more than the current market value of Rovio. It is also €40 million more than Playtika offered for the company in November (the fact that it had previously made such an offer also became known only now).
Despite the fact that Rovio continues to depend on its main franchise, the company has been doing well over the past year (both revenue and EBITDA have been growing). In addition, the company bought its own shares from the market for the entire fourth quarter, which, as a rule, indicates the management’s faith in its own company.
As for Playtika, during the second half of last year, it closed previously acquired studios and carried out massive cuts (for example, it closed Seriously, the authors of Best Fiends, and then announced plans to lay off 615 people in order to improve efficiency).
