Angry Birds developer Rovio valued at $1bn for its IPO

After months of rumour, buyout talks and news stories, the day is finally here – Rovio will be starting an initial public offering today. The offering was announced earlier this month and reported by Reuters.

The IPO is priced at €11.50 a share, which is the highest point of the intital range the company said in earlier statements of €10.25-11.50. This gives the Finnish mobile game developer a value of 896 million euros ($1.06 billion). The shares will trade when the market opens on Monday 3rd October on the Finnish NASDAQ.

However, don’t get your hopes up. The offer of shares has already been stopped. Such was the interest in the shares that the company has decided to stop offering due to being ‘oversubscribed‘. Rovio has had a successful year after a rather elongated period of decline. In the first six months of this year, Rovio’s profits have doubled year-on-year. This, along with the popularity of the Angry Birds franchise, has meant that the subscription period for purchasing shares was stopped on Monday.

"In the IPO, Rovio received gross proceeds… that will be used to support Rovio’s growth strategy. We also believe that the listing will strengthen Rovio’s brand recognition and brand awareness … and thus enhances Rovio’s competitiveness,” Chairman Mika Ihamuotila said in a statement to website Reuters.