Rovio has announced that it will be
making 110 staff -- of a global workforce of around 800 -- redundant in a
company "reorganisation", as well as closing up its game development
studio in Tampere, Finland.
The cuts, which were initially
announced in early October, were fewer than anticipated, Rovio said.
"Rovio Entertainment Ltd has
concluded employee negotiations announced on October 2nd this year. As a
result, Rovio will reduce its workforce by less than the previously planned 130
employees," the company wrote in a statement.
"Rovio estimates that its
workforce will be reduced by approximately 110 employees. As part of its
reorganisation, several positions have been opened for internal applicants. The
final number of employees impacted depends on how many of these new positions
are filled. Rovio will consolidate all its Finland operations in Espoo,
resulting in discontinuing the Tampere studio operations under Rovio."
The move follows the company's financial
report earlier
in the year, where it announced that its net profits for 2013 -- €26.9 million
($33 million)-- had more than halved from the net profits for 2012, which came
in at €55.5 million. At the time, CFO Herkko Soininen attributed the drop to
investments outside mobile gaming.
The company shot to prominence in
2009 with the release of Angry Birds for mobile, although it had previously
developed a variety of games for other platforms. After the release of Angry
Birds, however, the company concentrated most of its efforts around that
franchise. It followed up with Angry Birds Seasons in 2010; Angry Birds Rio in
2011; Angry Birds Space, Angry Birds Star Wars and Bad Piggies in 2012; Angry
Birds Friends, Angry Birds Star Wars II and Angry Birds Go in 2013; and Angry
Birds Epic, Angry Birds Stella and Angry Birds Transformers in 2014.
In addition, it launched its own
cartoon channel, which hosts its own Angry Birds cartoons: Angry Birds Toons,
Piggy Tales and Angry Birds; as well as physical toys, a board game and other
merchandise such as soft drinks and candy.
"After three years of very
strong growth, 2013 was a foundation-building year. 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. With these investments we have been gearing up for the future
growing markets," Soininen said.
The Angry Birds developer will
retain its game development studio in Stockholm, Sweden, as well as its
headquarters in Espoo, Finland, and its branch offices in Shanghai, China,
Santa Monica, Calif., Seoul, South Korea, Tokyo, Japan and London.
Source:Cnet
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