Angry Birds maker Rovio to slash 130 jobs

2 Oct 2014

Finnish mobile games maker Rovio is to cut up to 130 jobs in Finland, or 16pc of its workforce, as it aims to simplify the company around games, media and consumer products.

Rovio, the maker of the popular Angry Birds franchise, deemed the three areas as having the “highest growth potential”.

Chief executive Mikael Hed said today that Rovio had been building its team on assumptions of faster growth than has materialised.

“As a result, we announced today that we plan to simplify our organisation … we also need to consider possible employee reductions,” Hed said in a statement.

Despite Rovio having expanded Angry Birds into merchandise and an animated TV services, the company has struggled to retain players, resulting in flattening revenue and struggles in finding new growth, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Hed himself will be stepping down from the CEO role in January.

Angry Birds on mobile image via Shutterstock

Tina Costanza was a journalist and sub-editor at Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com