The Angry Birds are targeting not just pig's lairs, but also public investors. Rovio, the Finnish market of the most downloaded mobile app in the world, announced plans to go public in late 2013.

The only go signal that Rovio needs is the approval of current shareholders, Rovio Chief Financial Officer Mikko Setala told Swedish economic newspaper Dagens Industrii on Friday. Company shares are current held by its three founders, including the father of one of the founders who remortgaged a house to finance Rovio, and various venture capitalists such as Niklas Zennstroem, the founder of another major Internet phenomenon, Skype.

Mr Setala said that the initial public offering would most likely be by the second half of next year since Rovio does not need extra funds at the moment. Rovio, which was established in 2003, hinted on an IPO as early as 2011, with New York and Hong Kong as the preferred listing sites.

In 2011, Rovio registered net profits of $56 million on sales of $88 million, boosted by the download income from the popular mobile phone game which features angry winged creatures battling pigs. In May, Angry Birds downloads exceeded 1 billion.

Although a mobile phone game app, Angry Birds has also fueled other businesses such as plush toymakers which were actually losing money as more children opt for electronic toys over stuffed play items.

One such licensee who benefits from Angry Birds is Liza Shamus, executive vice president of Commonwealth Toy & Novelty, who secured from Rovio in 2010 a global license for 20 items such as plushes, vinyl items and outdoor toys. In November that year, when Rovio opened an online store to sell Angry Birds merchandise, Commonwealth's stock of Angry Birds products was sold out in two hours.

For 2012, Ms Shamus estimated her store would sell $400 million worth of Angry Bird items. Stock market observers are hopeful that Angry Bird shares would be equally as hot as the app downloads and merchandise if the current shareholders agree to an IPO in 2013.