Angry Birds worth at least as much as FarmVille, Rovio exec says

The Mighty Eagle has dollar signs in its eyes, as Rovio chief marketing officer Peter Vesterbacka said recently to Finnish magazine Kauppalehti Optio that his company is worth several billion dollars, MSNBC reports. And by, "several million," Vesterbacka means somewhere in the FarmVille range--he noted to estimates that Zynga was worth $20 to $25 billion (which sounds a bit inaccurate to me)--according to MSNBC.

But Bloomberg recently reported that the Angry Birds creator was worth at least $1.2 billion, and this valuation would mean Rovio is 100 percent viable to compete with Zynga. I've never read it being discussed seriously, the two being competitors, but perhaps those talks will start now. Rovio could be the second major company of the new age of publishers to combat the first. (And here we thought the birds were looking to get bought.) Rovio is looking for 1 billion users, and fast. Perhaps Zynga was more of a motivation to the birds than previously imagined.

"We are not selling though - unless somebody offers enough," Vesterbacka was quoted saying in the interview published on Thursday, according to MSNBC. The exec went on to say that Rovio plans to list on the New York stock market within three years. If Rovio can enter new territory with the Angry Birds and take full advantage of the freemium model, then there is no reason it can't be a viable competitor to Zynga.

The more Rovio attempts to introduce the Angry Birds to new media (and sources of revenue), the further it will inch toward defeating Zygna, which only is within a single, though massive market. What I'm getting at is to warn you that there is more swiping and harvesting in your gaming future where the first three years of it came from.

Zynga profits plummet 90 percent, raises questions about imminent IPO

Will the big show still go on? That's what many wonder, as Zynga just revealed in an updated regulatory filing that its profits dipped by 90 percent in the June quarter, thanks to increased spending and a lack of major game releases earlier this year, Reuters reports. According to the news service, this raises questions as to whether the company can sustain growth ahead of its long-awaited IPO (initial public offering).

Zynga's net income took a nose dive to $1.4 million from $14 million a year earlier, and its net profit plummeted over 90 percent in three months from $16.8 million in March of this year. Reuters chalks this up to the fact that the filing shows that the FarmVille maker's expenses rose $149 million compared to a year earlier, and $59 million alone from the previous financial quarter.

We'd imagine a major chunk of those expenses are thanks to the 14 companies Zynga gobbled up in the past year. It's also worth noting that the developer didn't really release any major Facebook games in 2011 prior to Empires & Allies. (And no, we're not counting FarmVille English Countryside.) Since then, however, the company has been on a frenzy, launching three more Facebook games this summer: Words With Friends, Pioneer Trail and recently Adventure World.

This news speaks volumes to the fact that Zynga has reached a point where it constantly needs to produce in order to sustain its meteoric growth, and more importantly for them right now, the faith of investors. Since the company's last filing, Zynga conducted a third-party analysis that estimated the probability of an IPO at 75 percent. This is down from the 80 percent probability reported in Zynga's previous filing.

In other words, it looks like the anticipated Zynga IPO could be delayed, just as previous reports suggested, to wait for improved market conditions. However, EA is gaining on the company with The Sims Social, and fast. According to AppData, EA and Playfish's game has just about 1.6 million fewer daily players than CityVille's 12.9 million.

Do you think Zynga has anything to worry about, given the news? Would you ever invest in Zynga if given the chance?