Rovio

????Who knew flinging cartoon birds across a 4-inch screen could be so lucrative? Since launching as an iPhone app in December 2009, Angry Birds has exploded into a gaming empire. There have been 350 million Angry Birds downloads since the game's launch in December 2009, 150 million more downloads than when Fortune checked in on Rovio last June and more than triple the number of downloads reported last March. Merchandise is moving along at a remarkable clip too. A themed cookbook sold out in the company's native country of Finland -- it's coming stateside in the next few weeks -- and Rovio is selling one million stuffed toys and another million t-shirts a month.

????Indeed, things couldn't be better for Rovio right now, which has rolled out Angry Birds out to numerous platforms including iOS, Android, Nook and Google's Chrome Web Store. It also has at least two new games in the works for release by year's end. Also on tap: an Angry Birds movie that will likely be developed in-house thanks to the acquisition of Helsinki-based animation studio Kombo.