Angry Birds creator Rovio: No IPO in 2012

Angry Birds creator Rovio has confirmed that it is not seeking to join the stock market this year, but is still looking to list an initial public offering in the next few years. The company, whose popular Angry Birds franchise topped 500 million downloads in total last November, had originally stated that it was eyeing a 2012 IPO with a valuation of more than $1.2 billion. However, a report in December said that the company was now looking to list an IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange sometime in 2013. Rovio's marketing chief Peter Vesterbacka has now told Reuters that the company will not join the stock market in 2012, but instead will seek an IPO in New York or Hong Kong sometime soon after. "We are not in a rush," he explained. "This year is way too early for an IPO, there are too many open things, and we are in a very early stage of the Angry Birds lifecycle." "Hong Kong is very interesting, absolutely, but again it is totally dependent on how markets develop. Asia is where all the people are, and future growth," he added. The company will no doubt be watching Zynga's IPO and learning from the decisions made by the Farmville developer. Vesterbacka also revealed that Angry Birds was downloaded over 6.5 million times on Christmas Day 2011 alone.