As Rovio looks to restructure the company and make it more focused and agile, CEO Pekka Rantala has stepped down from the post which he had assumed in January this year and is replaced by chief legal officer, Kati Levoranta. Pekka on the occasion said, “The time is right for me to step aside and move on to new challenges.”
Levoranta joined Rovio in 2012 as the head of sales, EMEA and chief legal officer and was previously part of Finnish mobile company Nokia as the Head of Legal and Compliance, Global Commercial Transactions.
This is not the only change that was announced, the former head of Rovio Stars, Wilhelm Taht has been named head of Rovio’s games division and Mikael Hed, a Rovio co-founder and previous CEO will head the media division for the company which includes licensing deals.
“We are now positioned to make the most of the release of The Angry Birds Movie in May and some exciting developments in the games and consumer products portfolios throughout 2016,” said incoming CEO Levoranta.
“I’m looking forward to continuing to collaborate closely with Mikael Hed and Wilhelm Taht in our new roles, and working with all Rovio employees as we take our business to new heights together.”
Lately the company is going under a lot of restructuring and under Rantala and Rovio cut more than 200 jobs, representing about a third of its workforce, while forecasting falling profits this year.
In August, Rovio’s revenues fell by 9 per cent to €158mn due to decline in Angry Birds toys and other merchandise. The company was planning to shut its playground and education businesses to focus on its core businesses of gaming, media and consumer products.
Rovio’s debut to the cinema world, The Angry Birds Movie is set to release in May 2016 and the company is banking heavily on it to perform well since its last game Angry Birds 2 did well in terms of downloads but could not find feet when it came to generating revenues through the game.