Rovio to sell controlling stake in gaming Netflix

The Finnish company has weak financial indicators this year.

The authors of Angry Birds are ready to put up for sale their controlling stake in the streaming service Hatch. Rovio had a bad financial year, and now it hopes to increase profits by selling shares.

Rovio now owns 80% of Hatch securities, writes Gamesindustry.biz . According to the company’s CEO Kati Levoranta, Rovio is ready to reduce its stake in Hatch Entertainment by more than 30%. After that, the developer’s profitability will grow by 14%.

A week ago, a minority stake in Hatch was sold to the Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo. At that time, Rovio still owned 80% of the shares, and the remaining 20% belonged to Hatch itself. It was not specified which of them acted as a seller in the deal with Docomo.

Angry BirdsRovio financial results

This morning, the developer’s stock price fell by 9.8%. This is due to the published financial report for the fourth quarter of 2018 and for the whole year. The results are not encouraging.

• Rovio’s operating profit in the fourth quarter fell to $6 million. This is twice lower than in the same quarter of 2017.
• Revenue for the quarter decreased by 1.7% year-on-year. It amounted to $81 million.
• Annual operating profit fell to $53.6 million. In 2017, it reached $72.7 million.
• Revenue for the same time amounted to $317.3 million, which is 5.4% lower than a year earlier.

Also on the topic:

• Japanese mobile operator Docomo bought a stake in the “gaming Netflix” from the creators of Angry Birds
• Rovio announced the development of 12 new games