Although Electronic Arts plans to purchase PopCap games for a whopping $1.3 billion later this year, Rovio Mobile — the developer studio behind Angry birds — says it values itself “north†of that figure.
Ville Heijari, Rovio’s Vice President of Franchise Development, revealed that multiple interested companies have made attempts to negotiate. “I wouldn’t say [EA] has approached us with any offer — obviously we’ve discussed with many different companies,†Heijari explained.
“About a year ago, in the summer of 2010, Angry Birds was already quite successful,†the Vice President continued. “At that point it started to look like a really, really feasible and desirable IP. So we had a lot of enquiries from many, many different parties. But we’ve had an overall strategic goal of growing this company and moving into different areas of business beyond games. I don’t think there’s ever been a really relevant discussion of whether somebody is going to buy us.â€
How much will interested companies have to shell out if they want to get in on the Angry Birds action? “The valuation from our point of view is somewhere, I dunno, maybe north of PopCap.â€
Electronic Arts and PopCap announced their $1.3 billion deal on Wednesday. The publishing giant owns mobile publisher Chillingo, social gaming company PlayFish, and now PopCap Games. Could Rovio Mobile be next?