Zynga ‘offered $2 billion for Angry Birds’

Social games kingpin Zynga tried to acquire Angry Birds studio Rovio in a deal worth $2 billion, a new report suggests.

A Bloomberg article that covers Zynga’s acquisition and merger practices claims that, according to “sources familiar with the matter”, Rovio spurned the extraordinary offer.

The article made no mention of when the alleged acquisition offer was made, though rumours of such a move surfaced in November last year.

Rovio has since flirted with the prospect of launching an IPO.

In March Zynga spent $180 million as part of its rapid acquisition of Omgpop – a move which was “smoothed” through the help of Zynga’s so-called “fixer”, Guru Gowrappan.

Dan Porter, Omgpop’s CEO when Zynga came calling, said Gowrappan “had this encyclopedic knowledge of every division in Zynga, and just routed us”.