Rovio laying off 16% of workforce

    Rovio, once the metaphor for the new Finnish jobs sector, isn’t itself immune to layoffs. In an announcement today Rovio says that they’re moving towards a more “simplified organization” and plan to cut 16% of their workforce, affecting 130 employees.

    “It is never easy to consider changes like this, but it is better to do them sooner rather than later, when we are in a good place to reignite growth,” CEO Mikael Hed writes on Rovio’s blog, where he points out they were building their team up on assumptions of faster growth than has materialized.

    These changes take place before Hed steps down as CEO in 2015 and is replaced by Pekka Rantala, former managing director of Fazer Brands.

    Focusing on strengths

    With the news, Rovio says they will be focusing on their three key businesses with the highest potential: games, media, and consumer products.

    Rovio had massive expectations for Angry Birds Stella, a new spinoff focused on the young female gamer demographic, but currently it seems like not much has materialized. Angry Birds Stella which started out in the top at launch earlier in September, but since then has dropped down to #602 in the US – Overall category according to AppAnnie.

    The company has lost 63 million players since 2012, but they’ve still got 200 million uses in their pocket to do something with.

    I’m interested in your thoughts. What do you think about this reorganization and the future of Rovio?