Unity announced the acquisition of ironSource
Game engine developer Unity has announced that it will acquire ad-serving technology company ironSource for $4.4 billion in a stock-for-stock deal. At the same time, after this acquisition takes effect, Unity will also initiate a $2.5 billion stock repurchase, and Unity’s two major shareholders will also invest $1 billion in Unity in the form of convertible bonds. Unity only made about 4% layoffs two weeks ago, and some employees are not optimistic about this acquisition.
Unity said in its announcement that “We believe the world is a better place with more successful creators in it. The combination of Unity and ironSource better supports creators of all sizes by giving them all the tools they need to create and grow successful apps in gaming and other consumer-facing verticals like e-commerce. This is a step further toward realizing our vision of a fully integrated platform that helps creators in every step of their RT3D journey. We look forward to welcoming Tomer Bar-Zeev, the CEO of ironSource, and the rest of ironSource’s talented team into the Unity family.”
Following the acquisition, ironSource will operate as part of Unity, and its CEO will have a seat on the Unity board.
Unity has actually acquired a number of companies recently, including VFX post-production company Weta Digital for $1.6 billion last year, and game streaming platform Parsec for $300 million. However, these are more or less related to game production or distribution. For example, the acquisition of ironSource this time can be said to be purely for income.
