Angry Birds developer Rovio is getting ready to launch its IPO following the company"s enormous financial success in 2011.
According to Reuters, the Finnish game developer has been pegged at a $9 billion valuation by analysts, which would put the company just shy of Finnish phone manufacturer Nokia"s market valuation. Rovio isn"t expected to file for an IPO until next year (in either New York or Hong Kong), but the head of investor relations at Rovio, Anders Lindeberg, said the company "is preparing itself and getting ready" for an IPO.
Rovio recently released its 2011 financial results, including a total revenue of $106.3 million and an earnings before taxes of $67.6 million. Additionally, the company announced the Angry Birds franchise had reached a total of 648 million downloads in 2011 and saw the monthly user base of the franchise increase to 200 million. Rovio also expanded from 28 employees to 224 in 2011.
If Rovio files for IPO, it would be the fourth notable technology company to do so in roughly a year. Facebook is expected to begin offering publicly traded stock on May 18, Groupon held its IPO in November, and Rovio competitor Zynga launched its IPO in December. Rovio was founded in 2003 but didn"t see much success until it launched the original Angry Birds for the iPhone in 2009.