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Rovio Entertainment reports growth in games and media businesses in 2014

Posted By : Mukesh    At 20-03-2015 00:11:41

Tags : Rovio Entertainment     Games     Media     Business    

Rovio Entertainment Ltd, the creator of the globally loved Angry Birds brand, announced today preliminary financial results for the full 2014 calendar year. Rovio's total consolidated full-year revenue amounted to €158.3 million, down year on year by 9% based on comparable figures. EBITDA was 11% of revenue, amounting to € 17.0 million. Rovio’s games and media businesses revenue grew by 16% and 19% to €110.7 million and € 6.2 million respectively. The year on year decline of consumer product licensing revenues impacted revenue and profit.

Games revenue growth of €15.5 million was driven by the launch of six new games as well as exciting new content in the existing portfolio. In 2014 Rovio was one of the world’s top five most downloaded games companies, with close to 600 million new game downloads. The company's gaming revenues and gaming-related advertising revenue remained strong. Media revenue growth was driven by advertising revenue.    

“2014 results show that steps in the game portfolio, free to play competency building and advertising are going in the right direction. I am confident that with new simplified organisation and clearer vision, we will be back to the path of growth in 2015” commented new CEO Pekka Rantala.

“I feel very good about our 2015 games roadmap. Since the beginning of the year we have launched two games, Jolly Jam and Angry Birds Stella POP! and we have soft launched two more. All of these are getting very good reviews. Our Asia expansion is also proceeding well. Angry Birds Fight will be our first game developed specifically for the world´s biggest game market, Japan. Furthermore, we have strong partnerships in China with Kunlun and Alibaba, and we are working with other partners in the region, including Korea”, Rantala added.

“On the consumer product side, 2014 was not a satisfactory year. However, the upcoming Angry Birds Feature Film is getting very positive reactions from major retail and license partners as well as from consumer focus groups. This will have a positive impact on licensing in the coming years. In the next few months, we expect major announcements of partnerships in the licensing space”, said Pekka Rantala.

The company, well known for being the first to build an entertainment brand from a mobile gaming app, is producing a high budget Angry Birds feature film. With an all star cast, including Jason Sudeikis (We are the Millers), Josh Gad (Frozen) and Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones), the Angry Birds feature film  is set for global release in May 2016 and will be distributed globally by Columbia Pictures of Sony Entertainment.