On the back of EA's $800 million, up to $1.35 billion, acquisition of PopCap, Angry Birdsdeveloper Rovio has been comparing itself to the US casual publisher.

Like PopCap, which planned to IPO maybe in late 2011, Rovio has been thinking about a public offering, while also dealing with the many companies sniffing around it,

Back to back

"We've had an overall strategic goal of growing this company and moving into different areas of business beyond games. I don't think there's ever been a really relevant discussion of whether somebody is going to buy us," VP franchise development Ville Heijari told Eurogamer.

"But the valuation from our point of view is somewhere, I dunno, maybe north of PopCap."

It isn't clear if this refers to the $750 million of the original deal (+$50 million in staff incentives), or the maxed out $1.35 billion total.

Rovio raised $42 million in VC funding in March, likely valuing it at around $200 - 300 million.

Community matters

As for people who point out PopCap has been successful for a decade and has multiple top selling games, compared to Rovio's singular Angry Birds, Heijari argued it has an established audience.

"We already have quite a big reach with this one title. We want to now leverage that reach and bring more social experiences, more delightful games to an already established audience," he said.

Angry Birds games have been downloaded over 250 million times on mobile with over 50 million active monthly users.

[source: Eurogamer]