Unity has received an offer from AppLovin, but it would come at the cost of its own acquisition of IronSource.
Mobile gaming tech company AppLovin has made an offer to acquire Unity Technologies in a $17.54bn deal.
This comes only a month after Unity announced plans to snap up AppLovin competitor IronSource for $4.4bn. According to the terms of AppLovin’s acquisition proposal, the IronSource deal will have to be terminated.
Based in San Francisco, Unity makes a platform for developing video games. Its technology has been used to build popular mobile games such as Call of Duty: Mobile, Pokémon Go and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp.
The company has a presence in Ireland as it acquired Irish software start-up Artomatix in 2020.
AppLovin helps developers publish and grow their apps through mobile advertising and analytics services. Based in Palo Alto and founded a decade ago, the company went public in April 2021 with a market cap of around $23bn.
Unity has not yet commented on the AppLovin offer and what it could mean for its IronSource merger.
CEO John Riccitiello previously said the IronSource deal would give developers the tools they need to create and grow apps in gaming and other areas.
However, AppLovin has other plans. “We believe that together, AppLovin and Unity create a market-leading business that has tremendous growth potential,” AppLovin CEO Adam Foroughi said in a statement.
“Unity is one of the world’s leading platforms for helping creators turn their inspirations into real-time 3D content. With the scale that comes from unifying our leading solutions and innovation that would be achieved with the combination of our teams, we expect that game developers would be the biggest beneficiaries as they continue to lead the mobile gaming sector to its next chapter of growth.”
Under the proposal, Unity would own 55pc of the merged company’s assets and 49pc of voting rights.
It is also proposed that Unity chief Riccitiello would become CEO of the combined business, while AppLovin’s Foroughi would take on the role of chief operating officer.
Unity reported $297m in quarterly revenue this week, up 9pc year on year and widening its operating loss.
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