Rovio, the developer of the Angry Birds mobile game, said it would seek an initial public offering in the United States.

"The plan is to seek an IPO in New York, but the specific timing and details are still open," said Rovio spokesman Ville Heijari in today.

On March 10th, Finland-based Rovio said it had raised $42 million from investors and named Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstroem to its board.

Angry Birds has players help birds destroy pigs who stole their eggs, with the help of a slingshot. Around 40 million monthly active users play the game, Rovio has said.

The original Angry Birds game was published by Chillingo, a mobile game company that was acquired by Electronic Arts in October for more than $20 million in cash and other undisclosed considerations.

Mobile and social games are the fastest growing segments of the video game industry. Research firm Gartner expects global revenue from mobile gaming, the segment that includes games for smart phones, to rise 19 per cent to more than $5.6 billion this year, while it is forecast to grow to $11.4 billion in 2014.

Rovio's board chairman first told about the plans in an interview with Talouselama, a business magazine in Finland.

Reuters