Sega Sammy Holdings Inc., a Japanese gaming conglomerate, has announced plans to acquire Rovio Entertainment, the developer of the popular mobile game Angry Birds, for $776 million. The deal places a premium of 19% on Rovio’s Friday closing price for each share at 9.25 euros.

The tender offer bid for Sega Sammy will go live on May 8, and the deal is expected to close within a few months, subject to some “customary conditions.”

Angry Birds now deals in Millions

Rovio’s shares surged 18.8% in early European trade following the announcement, according to Reuters. Angry Birds is dealing in millions. However, following the company’s announcement that it would be acquiring Rovio, Sega Sammy’s shares fell by 4.2 percent the day before the tender offer announcement.

In a statement regarding the acquisition, Sega Sammy Holdings President and CEO Haruki Satomi stated, “Historically, as represented by the’Sonic the Hedgehog series, Sega has released countless video game titles to various gaming platforms.” I’m certain that, through a blend of the two organizations’ brands, characters, fanbase, as well as corporate culture and usefulness, there will be critical cooperative energies made proceeding.”

Rovio CEO Alexandre Pelletier-Normand said in a statement about the takeover, mentioning “Our purpose is to ‘Craft Joy,’ and we are thrilled at the prospect of using our knowledge and tools to bring additional joy to our players, improving and broadening Rovio’s and Sega’s vibrant IPs,”

Rovio received a takeover offer earlier this year from the Israeli Playtika Holding Corp., which valued the company at 683 million euros. Playtika, on the other hand, announced in March that the takeover negotiations had ended.

Angry Birds was released in 2009 and quickly became a global phenomenon. Yet, the establishment began to lose force by 2014. In addition, the game became the first mobile game to be downloaded one billion times, breaking a world record.