Helsinki: Finnish gaming firm Rovio, creator of Angry Birds, one of the world's most popular computer games, is planning an initial public offering on the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2013, Finnish weekly Tekniikka & Talous reported yesterday.
Rovio's marketing chief Peter Vesterbacka told the paper the aim is to build the company into a media firm which would have a market capitalisation similar to that of Walt Disney Co, whose shares are valued at $65.3 billion (Dh239.65 billion).
"That is the target. There is no reason why we should not be able to build a company of that size," Vesterbacka was quoted as saying, adding Rovio's 2011 revenues would be around $100 million, compared with $10 million a year before. In May Rovio Chief Executive Mikael Hed told Reuters the firm was aiming for a stock market listing in New York in two to three years.
Unlike most mobile game crazes, Angry Birds, in which players use a slingshot to attack pigs who steal the birds' eggs, has stayed atop the charts since it was launched for Apple's iPhone in 2009. It has reached a record 600 million downloads in two years, compared with rival Electronic Arts' hit game Tetris which reached 100 million mobile downloads.
