Unity has rejected AppLovin’s $17.5 billion acquisition offer

Unity has decided not to accept AppLovin’s offer to merge their companies for $17.54bn in company stock.

According to a report by GamesIndustry.biz, the San Francisco based video game software development company will continue ahead with its previously announced plans to acquire AppLovin’s much smaller rival IronSource. 

At Unity, the board of directors unanimously agreed to reject the AppLovin offer, stating that the merger proposal was “not in the best interests of Unity shareholders”. The deal would have valued Unity shares at an 18% premium, but would have left AppLovin with 51% of the company stock post-merger.

Unity’s acquisition of IronSource is still expected to be complete by the end of Q4 2022. When it closes, Unity’s shareholders will own 74% of shares in the combined company.

When asked about the decision, Unity CEO John Riccitiello said “The board continues to believe that the IronSource transaction is compelling and will deliver an opportunity to generate long-term value through the creation of a unique end-to-end platform that allows creators to develop, publish, run, monetize, and grow live games and real-time 3D content seamlessly.”