HELSINKI (Reuters) – Angry Birds maker Rovio Entertainment said sales jumped tenfold to $100 million last year as gamers flocked to download its titles, adding business was now strong enough for a stock market listing.

The Finnish startup making Angry Birds games — in which players use a slingshot to attack pigs who steal the birds’ eggs — has been valued by analysts at up to $9 billion, just short of that of struggling world No.2 phonemaker Nokia.

HELSINKI, May 7 (Reuters) – Rovio Entertainment, creator of
Angry Birds games, said its finances were good enough for a
listing after revealing a strongly profitable 2011 in its first
public disclosure of business results.

The company forecast a strong year ahead, and said it was
now preparing for an offering by ensuring it meets corporate
governance requirements.

LONDON/HELSINKI, May 3 (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics
unveiled a new top-of-the-range Galaxy smartphone in
London on Thursday, updating the most direct rival to Apple’s
iPhone with a larger touch screen and more powerful
processor.

The South Korean technology group, which overtook Finnish
company Nokia as the world’s biggest cellphone maker
earlier this year, said the new Galaxy SIII model would go on
sale in some markets in late May and around the world from June.

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Nokia’s chairman-designate Risto Siilasmaa defended its turnaround strategy on Thursday before meeting shareholders who are losing patience with the company’s efforts to catch up in the smartphone market.

Nokia lost out to Apple Inc and Google Inc in the first wave of smartphone business and is now pinning hopes of a turnaround on Lumia, a new range which uses Microsoft software.

HELSINKI, May 2 (Reuters) – Wounded cellphone maker Nokia
has turned on one of its former allies in the patent protection
battlefield by filing lawsuits against rival smartphone maker
HTC as it steps up its efforts to raise funds.

Nokia filed several lawsuits covering 45 hardware and
software patents, ranging from power management to data
encryption technologies in Germany against HTC, Canadian
counterpart Research In Motion and tablet-maker
ViewSonic.

NEW DELHI/HELSINKI (Reuters) – Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research) phones once took pride of place in Manish Khatri’s Mumbai store, but now models made by Samsung Electronics (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) get the limelight.

He has nothing against Nokia, he says, but it’s better for business to push the more popular models.

NEW DELHI/HELSINKI (Reuters) – Nokia phones once took pride of place in Manish Khatri’s Mumbai store, but now models made by Samsung Electronics get the limelight.

He has nothing against Nokia, he says, but it’s better for business to push the more popular models.

HELSINKI/LONDON, April 27 (Reuters) – Cellphone maker Nokia
Oyj had its credit rating cut to “junk” status by
ratings agency Standard & Poor’s on Friday, its second downgrade
to non-investment grade status this week as the company battles
falling sales and doubts over its product strategy.

The rating cut, which follows a similar move by Fitch
Ratings earlier this week, sent spreads on Nokia bonds to their
widest ever against mid-swaps, a bond market benchmark, and
pushed the price of insuring Nokia debt against default to its
highest-ever level, indicating a growing level of investor
concerns about the company’s prospects.

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Standard & Poor’s has cut its credit rating on Finnish cellphone maker Nokia (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to junk on expectations of lower sales, following a similar move by Fitch Ratings earlier this week.

S&P said on Friday the decline in sales in Nokia’s phone business this year could be similar to the 18 percent fall in 2011, and downgraded its rating to BB+ from BBB-.

HELSINKI, April 25 (Reuters) – Finland’s Nokia
and Taiwan’s HTC won a key European ruling that a
patent of German firm IPCom, which was threatening sales of
their phones in Germany, was invalid in its current form.

Wednesday’s ruling by the European Patent Office was a rare
spot of good news for Nokia, which is struggling with dwindling
sales and credit rating downgrades in recent weeks. Nokia said
it meant it could continue selling products in Germany.