Angry Birds ‘aims for $1bn IPO in 2012’

Rovio Mobile, the Finnish creators of the smartphone sensation Angry Birds, could go public as soon as next year, an executive at the company has said.

CMO Peter Vesterbacka told Bloomberg that the App Store games giant will bid to go public “maybe a year from now.”

In March Rovio executives revealed their intention to have the company’s shares traded in the United States.

The move would make Rovio one of Europe’s few digital-only developers to be publicly-funded. It would also make the Angry Birds creators one of the only mobile games developers in the world to have its shares traded on the stock market.

However, market turmoil across the US and Europe has resulted in a global sell-off of less-than-certain shares. The trader panic has ripped through the games industry, with game publisher valuations falling sharply.

Zynga has posponed its own IPO as a result.

Earlier this year Rovio revealed it had secured $42 million in a surprise investment round.

The round is led by Accel Partners and Atomico Ventures. As part of the deal, Atomico Ventures founder Niklas Zennström will be joining the board of Rovio.