Helsinki — Angry Birds maker Rovio Entertainment is moving ahead with a long-awaited initial public offering (IPO) to help fund new games and deals in a consolidating industry, it said on Tuesday. The Finnish company said it would raise about €30m by selling new shares, while existing investors — which include the uncle of the company’s co-founder as well as venture capital firms Accel Partners and Atomico — would also sell an undisclosed stake in the business. Rovio, whose games had been downloaded 3.7-billion times by June, declined to put an estimated value on the company, which some media reports have said could be as high as $2bn. Rovio saw rapid growth after the 2009 launch of the original Angry Birds game, in which players use a slingshot to attack pigs that steal birds’ eggs, as the company cashed in on its popularity by licensing the brand for use on toys and clothing. In 2011, it said a flotation was a mid-term target, but there was little progress as business quickly decl...
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