Mobile software company AppLovin has offered to buy Unity for $17.5 billion.
According to Reuters, the mobile software developer from Palo Alto, California has put in an all-stock bid for Unity – the company behind the popular Unity Engine, which has been used to make games as diverse as Call of Duty: Mobile and Pokemon Go . Unity previously planned to acquire AppLovin’s competitor, ironSource.
AppLovin has reportedly offered $58.85 for each Unity share – a premium of 18% on Unity’s Monday closing price. Unity would own 55% of the combined company’s outstanding shares, giving Unity a 49% voting right going forward.
“Unity is one of the world’s leading platforms for helping creators turn their inspirations into real-time 3D content,” said AppLovin CEO Adam Foroughi in an official statement. “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. “
Unity has confirmed that its board will evaluate the APpLovin offer. Meanwhile, Unity reported $297 million in quarterly revenue – a 9% increase year-on-year in the face of recent layoffs.
Unity CEO John Riccitiello recently drew ire from other developers when he called developers who don’t focus on monetization the “biggest f****** idiots”. He was subsequently forced to apologize for his comments.
A buyout from AppLovin, which focuses on monetization software for mobile games, would push Unity further down the monetization road.