Rovio, the Finnish company behind the iOS/Android/every-other-platform-ever hit Angry Birds has announced their financials for 2011. Not surprisingly, the company made a ridiculous amount of money — just shy of $100 million, or 75.4 million Euros. Not surprisingly, this has put the company in a good position to begin the work of taking Rovio public.
The report outlined the surprising intricacies of Rovio’s financials. For instance, while the company brought in nearly $100 million in revenue, some 30% of that was from Angry Birds merchandising alone. All those cakes, pizzas, and everything else has really paid off. Taken all together, the company is valued in the $9 billion ballpark. Perhaps more startlingly, Rovio went from a mere 28 employees to 224 during 2011, in a massive hiring spree.
In addition to happy financial numbers, the report also details the popularity of Angry Birds with total downloads and active user figures. According to The Guardian, the game has been downloaded a total of 648 million times by the close of 2011, with all the numerous platforms that support the game bringing in 200 million active monthly users. For comparison, Zynga’s latest acquisition Draw Something limped along at 10 million active monthly users.
According to Reuters, all of this good news is a lead up to an eventual initial public offering — either in New York or Hong Kong — sometime next year. The news agency quotes Rovio’s head of investor relations Anders Lindeberg as saying, “this company is preparing itself and getting ready.”
For those a little less interested in purchasing Rovio stock and more interested in purchasing Rovio games are in luck as well. Reuters also reported that Rovio CEO Mikael Hed says that the company will be rolling out several new games in 2012, including a non-Angry Birds title.
Sadly, there is no word on when the KISS/Angry Birds game will be made a reality.
(The Next Web, The Guardian, Reuters)
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Published: May 7, 2012 10:06 am