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Angry Birds maker Rovio reports profit jump

An Angry Birds game character is seen at the Rovio headquarters in Espoo

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Rovio Entertainment, maker of the 10-year-old "Angry Birds" mobile game series, on Friday reported a 138% jump in third-quarter adjusted operating profit, helped by lower marketing costs and stable games revenue.

The Finnish company, which listed its shares in 2017, said its profit rose to 12.8 million euros ($15.1 million) from 5.4 million a year earlier, while revenue fell 9.2% to 67.9 million euros due to lower brand licensing revenue.

Rovio also updated its full-year outlook, saying its adjusted operating profit margin would "improve significantly" from last year's 6.3%, instead of just "improving" as it had previously stated.

Group revenue will be somewhat lower than last year's 289.1 million euros, it said.

"In Q3 2020, our games revenues declined slightly quarter on quarter after the revenue and player engagement normalised from the peak during the global shelter-at-home situation in Q2," outgoing CEO Kati Levoranta said in a statement.

This month, Rovio said Levoranta would be leaving the company by mutual consent at the end of the year. The board has not announced her successor.

(Reporting by Anne Kauranen; editing by Jason Neely)