Head of games leaves Angry Birds company Rovio

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland's Rovio and the head of its games operation, Jami Laes, have parted company as the business behind Angry Birds continues to grapple with an increasingly competitive mobile games market.

Though Rovio has expanded its hugely successful Angry Birds brand into an animated TV series and consumer product licensing, the company has struggled to produce more hit games and recently said it would cut about 14 percent of its workforce.

Laes said on Wednesday that he had left Rovio recently and is planning to launch a new start-up but declined to comment further.

A Rovio spokesman was not available for immediate comment.

(Reporting By Jussi Rosendahl; Editing by David Goodman)