Angry Birds Maker Rovio Makes $106M for 2011, Considers IPO

Rovio 2011 Financial Results

Finnish game maker Rovio Entertainment Ltd., creator of the highly popular Angry Birds games, distributed over 648 million copies of its games across all platforms and booked revenue of over US$106 million for 2011, the company revealed in its 2011 financial results Monday. Based on its strong results, the company may soon consider going public.

Total revenue for the company was €75.4 million ($106.3 million) with pretax earnings of €48 million ($67.6 million), a margin of 64 percent for the year.

Rovio, founded by three Helsinki University of Technology students in in 2003, had its big break in December 2009, when the company released the first Angry Birds title for the iPhone. Since then, multiple versions of the game have been distributed on Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, and Symbian, as well as on OS X, Windows and gaming consoles.

While most versions of the game are distributed for free and supported by ads, paid versions account for nearly 25 percent of total downloads, with most coming from the iOS platform.

Now, after 2011’s financially strong quarter, Rovio’s head of investor relations, Anders Lindeberg, hints that the company may go public, according to Reuters. “This company is preparing itself and getting ready,” Mr. Lindeberg told the news agency.

Rovio, with over 800 million downloads since its inception, has been valued at up to US$9 billion and CEO Mikael Hed is optimistic for the immediate future. “2012 looks fantastic,” Mr. Hed told Reuters. “We have had some very strong download numbers over four months.”

The company’s latest title, Angry Birds Space, garnered over 50 million downloads alone in its first 35 days. There is also early work underway on an Angry Birds animated feature film, along with animated shorts for online distribution.

[via TheNextWeb]