Angry Birds maker Rovio Entertainment to cut 213 of workforce mostly in Finland

By Money Times

Oct 22, 2015 04:46 AM EDT

Rovio Entertainment, the maker of Angry Birds, announced it will reduce a third of its jobs mostly in Finland.

The Finnish gaming company, Rovio Entertainment, had concluded from negotiations between employees on August 26. Rovio had deliberated it will cut 213 jobs.

The company will restructure its organization and will now focus on three businesses; consumer products, media, and gaming. According to the news release, jobs at its headquarters in Finland will mostly be affected. The deliberation will reflect the whole organization, except its workforce in the U.S. and Canada under The Angry Birds Movie.

A report from Reuters said Rovio planned the slash of jobs in August when it estimated the profit had declined for the whole year.

In addition, Kaisu Karvala, VP of Communications for Rovio Entertainment, said in an email that they are planning to halt its learning businesses including digital learning schools and the Angry Birds Playground.

"A spinoff startup company is looking to find funding to continue the business in a company focusing on Angry Birds Playground and digital learning tools," the spokeswoman added.

However, Tech Crunch confirmed its licensed preschool concept in Singapore and China will remain open, but it won't be expanded. Rovio will also continue publishing its books with trusted partners.

While the Angry Birds game remains as the most-downloaded, thus far, it doesn't get played the most at this time.

As new games came along, Rovio had failed to renovate the game. Angry Birds had been hit with a steady decline in the America while the rest under its enterprise fell down.

It was stated in the report that Angry Birds had showed a minimal growth from €110.7M to €95.2M. Though they invested in brand licensing to be used in consumer products, it suffered on flat sales and even shrunk by over €30M last year.

This is not the first time that Rovio had cut employees. In 2014, it laid off around 110 jobs. The company said it will provide career assistance on laid off employees.

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