‘Angry Birds’ Owner Gets Takeover Bid From Playtika

The Finnish company said it wasn’t presently engaged in talks with Playtika but would evaluate the proposal and determine how to proceed. Rovio’s shares jumped 40% in early trading to 7.96 euros, before falling back slightly.

Playtika specializes in casino-style mobile games, though it has recently added casual games akin to “Angry Birds” to its stable through a series of acquisitions.

In a statement, Playtika said it believed the combination of Rovio’s intellectual property and user base, together with its monetization and game operation capabilities, would create value for shareholders.

Simple yet addictive, “Angry Birds” was a trailblazing mobile game released in 2009 when smartphones and the mobile-gaming industry they enabled were still in their infancy. Players use a slingshot to fire their birds over, under and through various obstacles to knock out squadrons of green pigs attempting to steal their eggs.

The title was the first mobile game to be downloaded 1 billion times, according to Rovio, which claimed last year to have reached the milestone of 5 billion downloads across its games catalog.

Rovio has built on the success of the original game by launching multiple sequels, as well as TV spin offs and a 2016 movie. It floated on the stock market in late 2017, hoping the listing would help its growth plans.

However, Rovio has never managed to replicate the success of “Angry Birds” with its subsequent games titles and the aging franchise, while still popular, has itself been eclipsed in recent years by newer rivals.

Even so, Rovio had a relatively strong 2022, reporting a 16% increase in revenues to 241 million euros in the first nine months of the year relative to the same period in 2021. Profits during the period were up 9% to 33 million euros, the company said.

Playtika’s move for Rovio comes amid a postpandemic slowdown in gaming. Revenues from mobile games declined 6.4% year-over-year to $92.2 billion in 2022, according to games industry data provider Newzoo. Mobile games account for half of all videogame revenues, and are worth as much as console, PC and online videogames combined, according to Newzoo.

The slowdown has helped drive a wave of consolidation in the industry, most notably in Microsoft Corp.’s proposed $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc.  

Playtika announced in December that it was laying off around 600 employees, equivalent to 15% of its total head count.

—Dominic Chopping contributed to this article.

Write to Trefor Moss at Trefor.Moss@wsj.com

The Finnish company said it wasn’t presently engaged in talks with Playtika but would evaluate the proposal and determine how to proceed. Rovio’s shares jumped 40% in early trading to 7.96 euros, before falling back slightly.

Playtika specializes in casino-style mobile games, though it has recently added casual games akin to “Angry Birds” to its stable through a series of acquisitions.

In a statement, Playtika said it believed the combination of Rovio’s intellectual property and user base, together with its monetization and game operation capabilities, would create value for shareholders.

Simple yet addictive, “Angry Birds” was a trailblazing mobile game released in 2009 when smartphones and the mobile-gaming industry they enabled were still in their infancy. Players use a slingshot to fire their birds over, under and through various obstacles to knock out squadrons of green pigs attempting to steal their eggs.

The title was the first mobile game to be downloaded 1 billion times, according to Rovio, which claimed last year to have reached the milestone of 5 billion downloads across its games catalog.

Rovio has built on the success of the original game by launching multiple sequels, as well as TV spin offs and a 2016 movie. It floated on the stock market in late 2017, hoping the listing would help its growth plans.

However, Rovio has never managed to replicate the success of “Angry Birds” with its subsequent games titles and the aging franchise, while still popular, has itself been eclipsed in recent years by newer rivals.

Even so, Rovio had a relatively strong 2022, reporting a 16% increase in revenues to 241 million euros in the first nine months of the year relative to the same period in 2021. Profits during the period were up 9% to 33 million euros, the company said.

Playtika’s move for Rovio comes amid a postpandemic slowdown in gaming. Revenues from mobile games declined 6.4% year-over-year to $92.2 billion in 2022, according to games industry data provider Newzoo. Mobile games account for half of all videogame revenues, and are worth as much as console, PC and online videogames combined, according to Newzoo.

The slowdown has helped drive a wave of consolidation in the industry, most notably in Microsoft Corp.’s proposed $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc.  

Playtika announced in December that it was laying off around 600 employees, equivalent to 15% of its total head count.

—Dominic Chopping contributed to this article.

Write to Trefor Moss at Trefor.Moss@wsj.com