Rovio picks up $42 million in first funding round

Rovio, the makers of Angry Birds, has nabbed a total of $42 million in a first round of venture capitalist funding. This isn't necessarily quite that big a payday for the company -- while that's obviously a lot of money, the company has reportedly already pulled in about $70 million from app sales and the various licensing money it's been making off of those frustrated flyers and their grunty pig counterparts. But what this does mean is that any company looking to buy Rovio will have a tougher time of it, since the Finnish mobile game developer is now worth that much more.

Of course, going from what I saw of Rovio's Peter Vesterbacka at last week's GDC conference, I strongly doubt the company wants to be bought anyway. Vesterbacka seems to believe that Angry Birds is more or less vindication for the other fifty games his company made before it, and he's interested in having Rovio ride this franchise for as long as it will carry them. It's possible Rovio could get acquired (if the check gets big enough), but since Vesterbacka believes there's a lot more to do with Angry Birds, my guess is he'll use the money he's already put together to stay his own company.