Unity takeover: manufacturer rejects offer of $17.5 billion

Graphics engine developer Unity has rejected a billion-dollar takeover offer. AppLovin wanted to buy the company for $17.5 billion, but Unity turned it down. Instead, it wants to continue merging with Ironsource.

Unity rejects takeover by AppLovin

It’s not every day that a billion-dollar takeover offer whizzes into the house. But at graphics engine developer Unity, that’s exactly what happened. Last week, AppLovin had made an unsolicited offer of $17.5 billion to acquire the developer outright.

But as Unity now informs, the takeover offer has been rejected. It was not in the best interests of shareholders, the company said, which is why it recommended that this unsolicited offer be rejected.

AppLovin was founded in 2012 understands the monetization of apps in the mobile segment and set the condition that if Unity was acquired, it would have to end its cooperation with competitor Ironsource.

Ironsource acquisition still the goal

Back in July 2022, Unity announced its intention to acquire software developer Ironsource. Unity intends to remain committed to this planned acquisition, which will involve exchanging blocks of shares.

“The IronSource transaction offers significant benefits and the opportunity to generate additional value over the long term by creating a unique end-to-end platform to develop, publish, keep alive, monetize and grow Creators Live games and real-time 3D content,” said John Riccitiello, president and chief executive officer at Unity.

Substantial benefits are seen from the deal that will affect all shareholders and creators working with Unity, Riccitiello added. IronSource, on the other hand, has recently come under criticism. Their InstallCore software, released back in 2011, is considered malware by experts and by Malwarebytes, whereupon they discontinued the software in 2020 and no longer support it.

Considering the sheer amount of games that are developed with the Unity game engine, which was launched back in 2005 and is currently available in version 1.8, the acquisition has a rather bitter aftertaste.