Seems like the owners of the worldwide popular mobile-game Angry Birds have a lot in common with their main characters, as they are also close to finding a big golden egg. The Finnish company Rovio is in deep talks with investors to receive funding that would value the company at about $1.2 billion, according to sources with knowledge of the discussions. The company needs the money to further expand her activities.
The company involved seems to be an entertainment company whose name couldn't immediately be determined. Seemingly notable is that until recently, Rovio declined similar offers from large institutional investors.
The Finns have expansion thoughts, and plan to make an Angry Birds movie, open offices outside Finland, and are seeking to capitalize on the popularity of its brand in countries such as China, by selling stuffed animals and clothing in 200 retail stores.
The aggressive eying birds already started spreading their wings carefully as earlier this month a cookbook named 'Bad piggies egg recipes' was released for sale. The recipe book focuses on the the antagonists of the Angry Birds games, the inexplicably green and spherical pigs with a hunger for eggs. As such, all the recipes within are egg-based.
Oh, and you are warned; go armed and protected to the book stores if you don't want to get hurt by angry bird attacks on your way there.
source: telegraaf.nl, chinadaily, metro.co.uk
One of the main ways that Facebook addicts users is games, and now Google+ is following Facebook into gaming.
Google began introducing games on its social network Thursday, and while it is starting with just a few options, they include big-name games like Angry Birds from Rovio, Bejeweled Blitz from PopCap Games and most notably, Zynga Poker.
Google+ has been growing remarkably quickly, and already rivals existing social networks. Though it does not have Zynga’s most well-known games, FarmVille and Mafia Wars, the two companies already have a partnership because Google has invested in Zynga.
Google+ users will see a Games page at the top of their news-feeds and can click on it to play games or see gaming updates from friends. But updates will be shared only with select circles of people when users are on the Games page, so they will not appear in general news-feeds — something that has annoyed Facebook users in the past.
Google also sent a message to software developers, who have been clamoring to build applications for Google+. It said it was partnering with only a few game developers now, but would open the doors to other developers as soon as it works out some kinks. Google will invite developers slowly, it said, emphasizing the quality of applications over quantity.
Google made his move. It's your turn now Facebook. What will you do? Sit this turn out in order to launch an even bigger move the next turn? Or maybe you had something else in mind? Well..No matter what happens, it's always good to see companies battling with each other for the users don't you think?
source: nytimes
