Angry Birds' Rovio aiming for $1.2 billion valuation

Rovio, the development company behind the insanely popular iOS game property Angry Birds, is working on getting more funding. A deal is reportedly underway that would put the value of the studio at $1.2 billion. That's billion with a freakin' B, which is an astronomical number for a mobile game developer with really only one brand people are interested in. That's not to say that Rovio isn't worth that much -- certainly the Angry Birds property has long, long legs, and not just in mobile games, but in all of the other licensing deals available, from movies to merchandise and lots of other products and deals.

But seriously, $1.2 billion? A deal like that would have to come from a huge company, which means you're talking about someone like Disney or Zynga, according to analyst Michael Pachter, buying out Rovio and trying to exploit the property on a worldwide level. That seems like an awfully big gamble, but whoever's investing that money would have to believe that there's at least that much left in the Angry Birds property.

I don't mean to make the birds angry or anything, but Popcap just went for $750 million. I'll be surprised to say the least if Rovio can pick up this much. But then again, the birds have come this far already, right?