Angry Birds' producer Rovio anounces redundancies

Rovio, the Finnish maker of the popular mobile game "Angry Birds" announced on Thursday up to 130 job cuts, blaming flagging sales growth. (Photo/Shanghai Daily)

Finnish entertainment company Rovio said on Thursday it will downsize and some 130 employees, almost one fifth of its staff in Finland, will have to go.

Rovio has been one of the most prominent Finnish games producers and the creator of the brand Angry Birds.

The notification by CEO Mikael Hed on the company blog site did not mention operations outside Finland. Hed said that growth in the sector had been less than expected and the organization has to be simplified.

The company will focus on media, games and consumer products.

The announcement by Rovio was seen by local media as another blow, but a decisive one, to the high tech image of the country.

In a Finnish public discussion, some of the glamour attached previously to Nokia transferred to Rovio in recent years. Rovio was seen as a symbol of new high technology avenues opened by Finnish industries.

Rovio has lost ground recently to free-to-play games. While original Rovio games require payment as part of the downloading, free-to-play games only sell tools in the process of a game.

A Rovio spokesperson denied reports that the company would be selling parts of its business. Finnish technology news service Digitoday had quoted sources within Rovio as saying that parts of the company would be sold to US toy giant Hasbro.

In 2013 Rovio's net result came down to a half from the level of 2012, but was still at 29.5 million euros. Turnover in 2013 was 156 million euros.

Half of the company's revenue is based on other sources than games, mainly licences. An Angry Birds feature film is to reach theatres in 2016.