Rovio is rolling up its sleeves in preparation for another round of job cuts that will see up to 260 redundancies across the company.
The Angry Birds creator announced the news in a blog post, saying that the restructuring will see a “leaner and more agile” company centred around three business areas: games, media, and consumer products.
It previously cut 110 job in December 2014.
Break some eggs, make an omlette
“Rovio’s growth and eagerness to explore new business opportunities over the past few years have been exceptional. As a result, we did too many things,” said Rovio’s CEO Pekka Rantala.
He added, “In our current financial condition we must now put focus on where we are at our best: in creating magnificent gaming experiences, in producing an amazing animation movie and in delighting our fans with great products.”
While Angry Birds 2 was snapped up by the masses with over 30 million downloads, the company has crested a wave of revenue decline.
In 2014 Rovio’s revenues fell by 9 percent as sales of Angry Birds merchandise plummeted by 43.4 percent. A 16.3 percent increase in player spending within mobile games was not enough to patch the deficit.
New path
The layoffs are, in part, due to Rovio’s ambition two years ago in 2013. During its peak growth period Rovio added 300 new employees and bolstered its headcount to 800.
We did too many things.Pekka Rantala
Wind the clock forward, and with offices in Espoo, Stockholm, London, New York, LA, Vancouver, Shanghai, Seoul and Toyo – it could be said that the company scaled too quickly.
It’s a mistake Rantala seems keen to remedy now, saying “it is certain that a leaner and more agile Rovio is absolutely necessary to move forward and take the company to new successes in the future.”
That future involves a movie set for release in 2016, which could certainly help rejuvenate waning interest in Rovio’s consumer merchandise. In the meantime, Angry Birds 2 will need to start climbing the top-grossing charts where it is currently 58th in the US.
