No sooner had global layoffs begun at Unity than the company best known for its video game engine began looking for a new venture to buy. And it looks like Unity found it in Ironsource.
For those who don’t know, Ironsource is “a leading business platform that empowers mobile content creators to turn their apps into scalable, successful businesses,” Unity said in a press release. Ironsource seems to bring analytics, ads, and accounting for mobile apps together in one complementary app.
Today’s announcement confirms that Ironsource will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Unity through a share deal. Ironsource shares will be exchanged for 0.1089 Unity shares of common stock, representing a 73.5% return on investment compared to Ironsource’s current share price.
The combination of Unity and ironSource will help creators of all sizes by giving them all the tools they need to create and grow successful applications in the gaming industry and other consumer-facing verticals such as e-commerce. This is another step towards realizing our vision of a fully integrated platform that helps creators every step of the way in RT3D.
Unity describes the merger as a fusion of complementary technologies creating “an end-to-end platform that allows creators to create, publish, launch, monetize, and grow live games and RT3D content seamlessly.”
In addition to the merger, Unity also announced a $2.5 billion share buyback program that aims to reduce dilution caused by the share swap with Ironsource.
Recently, Unity has spent billions on acquisitions of several companies. Last year, Unity acquired digital effects studio Weta for $1.62 billion and cloud technology maker Parsex for $320 million. Earlier this year, Unity also acquired Ziva Dynamics, the company behind the real-time character creation technology in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2.
The Ironsource merger also came right after the mass layoffs at Unity. Between 300 and 400 employees were laid off, according to Kotaku, with former employees accusing Unity of being a “shit show”.
