Rovio CEO Resigns Amidst Declining Numbers, New CEO Named
The longtime CEO of Rovio, the company who made Angry Birds a household name, has been replaced due to a steep fall in profits.
Business Insider reports that Mikael Hed, the co-founder and longtime CEO of Rovio Entertainment, has stepped down, and Pekka Rantala has been chosen as his successor. Rovio's profits fell to 52 percent during the fiscal year of 2013 while its staffing nearly doubled. Hed will now become the chairman of Rovio Animation Studios, which will be producing movies for the company, and was nominated to a Board of Directors position.
Rantala was appointed as Rovio's Chief Commercial Officer in June. Prior to working at Rovio, he was Nokia's SVP/worldwide marketing. He was brought in to have a distinguished, outside perspective tighten the company and get it to streamline its production.
This profit drop is most likely due to Angry Birds' popularity decline. It was a widely popular fad and extended into plenty of marketable areas, but it was forced into being a fad -- it was meant to fall. There were pillows, toylines, food products and all sorts of money-making ventures out there featuring our favorite slingshot-using birds, but their time is winding down. There are thousands of other free-to-play titles on the mobile market now, and many of them are starting to eclipse the Angry Birds popularity. Similar reports are happening for King and the popularity of its Candy Crush Saga app. There is only so much merchandising you can force down consumers' throats when it comes to a simplistic series like Angry Birds.
“It has been an amazing ride and in the coming months I will be very happy to pass the hoodie to Pekka Rantala, who will take Rovio to the next level,” Mikael Hed said. “Pekka is known to be a great leader with experience building successful global consumer brands. I will continue to play an active role and will support Pekka in any way I can to ensure Rovio’s continued success.”