Rovio profits halve in tough 2013

Rovio’s profits dropped by more than half to €26.9m (£22.2m) during a tough 2013.

The Angry Bird developer’s latest financial report shows after-tax profits had dropped from a high in 2012 of €55.5m (£45.7m).

Revenues grew slightly however to €156m (£128.5m), up from €152.2m (£125.3m) in 2012.

Rovio CFO Herkko Soininen said 2013 had been a “foundation-building year” for the company as it gears up for a stronger 2014 and beyond. During the last year, the number of employees at the company grew from 500 to 800.

“We invested in new business areas, such as animation and video distribution, ventured into new business models in games, and consolidated our strong market position in consumer products licensing,” he said.

“With these investments we have been gearing up for the future growing markets.”

Rovio CEO Mikael Hed added: “Building on top of our games business, where we moved into free-to-play, Rovio set its foot strongly into the entertainment business. In 2013 we formed a world-class movie animation production team in Los Angeles that is already working on the first Angry Birds feature film, to be globally premiered in July 2016.

“In addition we built the biggest animation studio in the Nordics for the production of animated TV content, bringing to market 42 Angry Birds Toons episodes in its first year. In launching ToonsTV, we introduced new means of content delivery, with 2 billion views already. On the licensing side, we continued to push digital and physical integration.”