Early weekend it was resounding in the rumor mills that the makers of Angry Birds, Rovio, was on the edge of landing an agreement to let themselves be bought by Sega and its parent company Sega Sammy and this morning the Japanese company confirmed this being a fact.

Via a press release, Sega parent company Sega Sammy confirms that it is in the process of buying Rovio Entertainment, the creators of the Angry Birds franchise, Amazon Alex and Bad Piggies for $776 million.

As early as Friday afternoon, outlets including The Wall Street Journal heard about the conversations and that the buying amount was $1 billion.

Sega acknowledges that it was a “friendly takeover” and this could mean that Rovio could have started conversation first instead of a hostile offer, which is commonly called when a buyer gives an unrequested offer and pushes that the bought entity accept the price.

Pretty much without any major news after the Angry Birds The Movie sequel and the removal of the original Angry Birds game from iOS and Android, tells you the state of Rovio previous the announcement.

Sega expects to close the deal by “the second quarter of FY2024”, which means it should be complete by September 2023.