Sulake CEO Timo Soininen Steps Down
After leading Sulake for 10 years, Timo Soininen, steps down from the position of CEO and joins the board of directors, according to a Sulake press release. The board of directors has named Paul LaFontaine the new CEO. He was previously the vice president for Global Distribution at Disney Playdom. Timo Soininen has effectively taken the company from a small startup in the turn of the millenium to a multi-million euro business globally. Sulake is famous for its Habbo Hotel, online social community for teens. This March we reported on Sulake's revenues growing more than 20% from 2009 to 2010.
Sulake Revenue Grows +20%, Sells IRC-Gallery
Sulake has today announced their figures for fiscal year 2010, as well as some changes to their ownership of online properties. In 2010, Sulake turned over 56,2 million euros, which is over 20% more than in 2009. EBITDA for 2010 was at 5,4 million euros profit for the year was at 1,6 million euros. In addition to announcing their financials, Sulake has stated that they have today sold IRC-Gallery to Somia Reality Oy, which is run by a few former IRC-Gallery employees and funded by Lifeline Ventures and a few individual investors.
Live Blogging: IBP Camp Helsinki
We'll be testing something new today as we'll be live blogging the IBP Camp Helsinki from Korjaamo. The event will feature really interesting speakers such as Andreas Ehn and Timo Soininen. IBP Camp Helsinki's official after party, ArcticEvening Helsinki will take place starting at 6pm. We won't be able to live blog that, but this is something we'll test for the future too. Do take part in the conversation and let us know if you'd like to ask us any questions from the speakers.
Habbo registers 100 millionth member
Habbo Hotel has registered one hundred millonth member. The user account was created in the UK. M&M, a Finnish marketing and advertising medium, has also stated in their news that in the five and half months of this year about 20 million new characters were created (3,5+ million a month).
M&M also reports on business figures (well, proportional at least). Sulake's May 2008 is 20% bigger in terms of revenue than in May 2007. It is also said to be positive, making this year the first profitable one.
Sulake is planning to go public
Kauppalehti, a Finnish business daily, reported yesterday that Sulake's CEO, Timo Soininen, is planning to take the company public. According to Mr. Soininen the earlierst possible date for the listing would be sometime next year.
Soininen thinks Sulake starts to be big enough for an IPO. Soininen's comments takes place after Sulake was valued 9th in Alley Insider valuation (at 25 times revenues) for digital startups. Read more on the story here.
Soinen added that Sulake is profitable and aims to a 20 percent increase in turnover this year. Last year's turnover was 43 million euro.
Despite the Alley Insider estimation Soininen himself refuses to comment on his company's valuation.
