Rovio Entertainment Corp. Press Release Oct. 7, 2019
Rovio Entertainment Corporation seeks efficiencies in brand licensing business and is planning restructuring its Brand Licensing Unit
Rovio Entertainment Corporation is entering into employee cooperation negotiations and is planning to restructure its Brand Licensing Unit. The aim is to seek efficiencies and improve the profitability of the brand licensing business. The negotiations will start October 14, 2019.
The background for the planned restructuring is the highly competitive character licensing business landscape, especially for licensed consumer products. As communicated earlier in connection with the 1H/2019 financial report, this has lowered revenue expectations from the Brand Licensing Unit. Going forward, the brand licensing activities will focus more on the most important licensees and retailers, key product categories and top territories.
"Rovio has a unique asset, the Angry Birds brand that enjoys a very high global awareness. However, the competition in the licensing business, especially for consumer products, has intensified. Thus, we aim to do things more efficiently, adjust our way of working and rearrange our brand licensing operations accordingly. The planned changes will not affect our games business", says CEO Kati Levoranta.
The restructuring plan concerns 32 employees of the Brand Licensing Unit globally. According to the preliminary estimates, the planned measures could lead to maximum redundancy of 20 roles globally.
More information:
Kati Levoranta, CEO, tel. +358 207 888 300
Rene´ Lindell, CFO, tel. +358 207 888 300
About Rovio
Rovio Entertainment Corporation is a global, games-first entertainment company that creates, develops and publishes mobile games, which have been downloaded 4.5 billion times so far. Rovio is best known for the global Angry Birds brand, which started as a popular mobile game in 2009, and has since evolved from games to various entertainment and consumer products in brand licensing. Today, Rovio offers multiple mobile games, animations and has produced The Angry Birds Movie, which opened number one in theatres in 50 countries. Its sequel, The Angry Birds Movie 2, released worldwide in August 2019. Rovio is headquartered in Finland and the company's shares are listed on the main list of NASDAQ Helsinki stock exchange with the trading code ROVIO.
