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Angry Birds Maker Rovio Confirms Talks with Sega over Tender Offer

Angry Birds game characters are seen at the Rovio headquarters in Espoo, Finland March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Anne Kauranen
Angry Birds game characters are seen at the Rovio headquarters in Espoo, Finland March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Anne Kauranen
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Angry Birds Maker Rovio Confirms Talks with Sega over Tender Offer

Angry Birds game characters are seen at the Rovio headquarters in Espoo, Finland March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Anne Kauranen
Angry Birds game characters are seen at the Rovio headquarters in Espoo, Finland March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Anne Kauranen

Rovio Entertainment, the company behind the mobile game Angry Birds, confirmed on Saturday that it is in talks with Japan's Sega Sammy Holdings Inc over a possible tender offer.

Rovio announced the start of a strategic review and preliminary non-binding discussions regarding a potential tender offer for its shares in February, a statement from the group said.

"As part of its strategic review, Rovio Entertainment Corporation confirms that it is in discussions with Sega Sammy Holdings Inc," it said. "Rovio and Sega will release further information at an appropriate time."

The statement comes after the Wall Street Journal on Friday reported that Sega is nearing a deal to acquire Rovio for about $1 billion.

Rovio declined to comment on the valuation. As of Friday's close its market capitalization stood at 594.1 million euros ($653.5 million), according to Refinitiv Eikon data.

The company added in the statement that there "is no certainty as to when the possible tender offer would take place, or whether it would take place at all".

Sega did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Rovio received a 683 million euro takeover bid in January from Israeli peer Playtika Holding Corp, but the talks were called off last month.

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'Romeo and Juliet' Star Olivia Hussey Dies Aged 73

Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey starred in the 1968 adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet". CHRIS DELMAS / AFP
Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey starred in the 1968 adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet". CHRIS DELMAS / AFP
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'Romeo and Juliet' Star Olivia Hussey Dies Aged 73

Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey starred in the 1968 adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet". CHRIS DELMAS / AFP
Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey starred in the 1968 adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet". CHRIS DELMAS / AFP

Olivia Hussey, who starred as a teenage Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film "Romeo and Juliet," garnering her a Golden Globe, died Friday at age 73, her family announced.
"Olivia was a remarkable person whose warmth, wisdom, and pure kindness touched the lives of all who knew her," her family said in a statement posted to her Instagram account.
Buenos Aires-born Hussey was 15 when she and her co-lead Leonard Whiting starred in the Oscar-winning adaptation of William Shakespeare's tragedy, AFP said.
In 2023, the two actors filed a lawsuit against the studio alleging child abuse over a controversial nude scene featuring the pair, who were minors at the time.
A judge dismissed the lawsuit later that year.
In a 2018 interview with entertainment trade publication Variety, Hussey said Zeffirelli had shot the nude scene tastefully.
"Everyone thinks they were so young they probably didn't realize what they were doing," Hussey said.
"But we were very aware. We both came from drama schools and when you work, you take your work very seriously."
Whiting told Variety the pair had supported each other through the daunting experience.
"Olivia was very, very nervous and frightened as well, but we really were very fond of each other and we helped each other get through the whole thing," he said in 2023.
Born to an Argentine opera singer and a British legal secretary, Hussey moved with her family from Buenos Aires to London when she was seven years old.
She studied at the Italia Conti drama school and was already a working actor as a teenager when she was cast in Zeffirelli's film.
Hussey, who received a "New Star of the Year" Golden Globe for her performance, would later star in the 1974 slasher film "Black Christmas" and the 1978 adaptation of Agatha Christie's "Death on the Nile", among other projects.
She is survived by her husband David Eisley, their three children and a grandchild.