Angry Birds developer Rovio has clipped wings, as profits continue to decline

By Williams Pelegrin March 19, 2015

The birds of the Angry Birds Movie. — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Now a shell of its former self, Angry Birds developer Rovio revealed that, due to a sharp decline in licensing revenue, the company reported a 73 percent drop in operating profits for 2014, according to Reuters.

Rovio reported operating profits of just $10.8 million for 2014, a sharp decrease from 2013’s $39.3 million in operating profits, which was also a huge decline from the $82.7 million in operating profits for 2012. The bad news continued, as Rovio reported a 9 percent decline year-to-year in revenue, down to $171 million.

It wasn’t all bad news for the Angry Birds studio, though. It reported a 16 percent increase in revenue attributable to mobile games of $119.3 million. This increase was thanks to titles like Jolly Jam and Angry Birds Stella.

Rovio hopes to get its licensing business back on its feet with the Angry Birds movie, which is set to premiere in July 2016. “The movie will help us get the licensing business back to growth,” said Rovio CEO Pekka Rantala. “Pretty soon we will be able to publish new major partnership deals.”

Rovio hoped to use the Angry Birds characters as a means to become a big entertainment company, in the same way that Disney is. At this point, however, the company is just trying to remain afloat.

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Williams Pelegrin

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…

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