Rovio's decoupling continues as book publishing activity spun out

Rovio's restructuring continues with the news that it's spun out its book publishing efforts from the central nest.

The new "affiliate" company is called Kaiken Publishing.

As well as working on books for Rovio IP, the children and teen-focused outfit also developing what it labels "new stories, worlds and characters".

These include existing franchises Freya and Storm Sisters, which have already found wider support in the industry with Macmillan Children's Imprint picking up the worldwide English rights to the first two Freya books.

Kaiken Publishing will also work as the global master licensee for Angry Birds books.

Wider vision

"In publishing we've explored new ways of creating quality content for our fans, both within the Angry Birds universe and with new IP," says Mikael Hed, who leads Rovio's media business.

"Now there's a great possibility to take that mission even further as a standalone company with a clear mandate and focus."

The announcement follows the news that Rovio had outsourced its EMEA in-app ad inventory to Venatus Media, and - more generally - widescale redundancies announced in summer 2015.