Unity will “thoroughly evaluate” new £14 billion merger offer

Unity has said it will “thoroughly evaluate” a new merger offer, after previously agreeing to partner with Ironsource.

Mobile ad tech company AppLovin has offered to buy Unity for $17.5billion (£14.2 billion) in an all-stock deal.

According to Reuters, if the deal goes ahead, Unity will own 55 per cent of the combined company’s outstanding shares, representing about 49 per cent of the voting rights. Under the proposed deal, Unity’s chief executive John Riccitiello will become CEO of the combined business, while AppLovin chief executive Adam Foroughi will take the role of chief operating officer.

“Unity is one of the world’s leading platforms for helping creators turn their inspirations into real-time 3D content,” said Foroughi in a 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.”

It comes after Unity said last month it would buy AppLovin’s competitor Ironsource in a $4.4 billion (£3.6 billion) all-stock transaction.

Talking about the merger with Ironsource, Unity CEO John Riccitiello said the partnership “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,” however the merger was heavily criticised due to Ironsource’s development of a malware installer.

Unity’s board will have to terminate the Ironsource deal if it wants to pursue a partnership with AppLovin.

Ironsource could apparently receive a $150 million (£122 million) termination fee if Unity decides to walk away, according to the merger agreement.

According to PCGamer, Riccitello began an earnings call yesterday with a straightforward statement that no one would be discussing the offer publicly at this early stage.

In other news, Nintendo has confirmed players will be able to try Splatoon 3 later this month, via a limited-time Splatfest. It comes ahead of the proper launch of the game on September 9.