Rovio CEO considering acquisitions

Rovio CEO Mikael Hed said that the company is prepared to make acquisitions to help its growth, AllThingsD reports.

The Angry Birds developer has achieved enormous success with a single IP, diversifying its business by entering markets related to games like animation and plush toys.

However, with the company suggesting that it might IPO either this year or the next, further growth in the near-term would be desirable.

"That's another one of the areas we are starting to be ready for - acquisitions," Hed said. "It would be very easy for us to just go shopping. To get lasting benefit is the hard part."

Hed claims that he would be "more worried" about the future of Rovio if its entire business was still based on game development. However, even though the company's first game outside of the Angry Birds IP won't be released for "a couple of months," interest in the company remains high.

"It is very regular to get contacted by somebody who wants to know if we are interested [in selling]," he said.

"I would say there are a number of companies that are very active in the acquisition space. Zynga is one of them."

Hed admits that there is a point at which it would benefit the company to be acquired, but Rovio has yet to receive a compelling enough offer. "We are not in a rush to sell," he said.

A significant contributor to that hesitance is finding a suitor that would honour Rovio's values as a company. Hed feels that too many companies view their customers in terms of revenue and nothing more.

"Talking about 'users' is totally wrong. As long as you keep talking about users, you forget they are really human beings," he said. "You are not making (things) for essentially a walking wallet."

On Christmas Day last year, Angry Birds was downloaded 6.5 million times, just 300,000 shy of the total number of mobile phones activated.