Earlier this month, Angry Birds creator Rovio raised $42 million in venture capital funding from Accel Partners and Atomico Ventures. Less than a week later, the Internet was buzzing with talk that the Finnish company was planning to go public in New York. Some examples:
- Mashable: Angry Birds maker, Rovio, plans IPO
- BBC: Angry Birds developer set for stock market launch
- Reuters: Angry Birds developer takes aims at New York IPO
Wow. What a quick flip. And easy money for the VCs, who basically get to act as bridge financiers… Wait. Hold on. I’m getting word that these headlines are horribly misleading.
Rovio is not going public this year. Or next year. And probably not even in 2013.
Each of these stories was based on interviews with company chairman Kaj Hed, who said that Rovio hopes to list in New York within the next five years. In other words, he said the same thing that almost every other entrepreneur says upon raising lots of VC funding (“we hope to make this a great company, eventually take it public, yada yada.”)
I’m not dismissing Rovio’s chances of a successful IPO, just its chances of a successful IPO anytime soon. In fact, Rovio CEO Mikael Hed told me that Rovio expects to raise more VC funding “sometime in the future” — an infusion that almost certainly would come before any public offering.
So no Rovio IPO… yet.