Angry Birds worth at least as much as FarmVille, Rovio exec says

The Mighty Eagle has dollar signs in its eyes, as Rovio chief marketing officer Peter Vesterbacka said recently to Finnish magazine Kauppalehti Optio that his company is worth several billion dollars, MSNBC reports. And by, "several million," Vesterbacka means somewhere in the FarmVille range--he noted to estimates that Zynga was worth $20 to $25 billion (which sounds a bit inaccurate to me)--according to MSNBC.

But Bloomberg recently reported that the Angry Birds creator was worth at least $1.2 billion, and this valuation would mean Rovio is 100 percent viable to compete with Zynga. I've never read it being discussed seriously, the two being competitors, but perhaps those talks will start now. Rovio could be the second major company of the new age of publishers to combat the first. (And here we thought the birds were looking to get bought.) Rovio is looking for 1 billion users, and fast. Perhaps Zynga was more of a motivation to the birds than previously imagined.

"We are not selling though - unless somebody offers enough," Vesterbacka was quoted saying in the interview published on Thursday, according to MSNBC. The exec went on to say that Rovio plans to list on the New York stock market within three years. If Rovio can enter new territory with the Angry Birds and take full advantage of the freemium model, then there is no reason it can't be a viable competitor to Zynga.

The more Rovio attempts to introduce the Angry Birds to new media (and sources of revenue), the further it will inch toward defeating Zygna, which only is within a single, though massive market. What I'm getting at is to warn you that there is more swiping and harvesting in your gaming future where the first three years of it came from.

[Via Zap2It]

Do you think Rovio could really be worth around $11.5 billion? If true, how do you think Zynga will respond, and which mode of gaming will come out on top? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.