Unity rejects $17B hostile takeover bid from AppLovin

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Unity‘s board of directors rejected a $17 billion hostile takeover bid from AppLovin in favor of its pending deal to combine with mobile monetization firm IronSource.

Unity took about six days to reject the unsolicited offer from AppLovin to combine with Unity. AppLovin, a mobile game publisher and monetization firm, made an all-stock offer valuing Unity at $58.85 per share, an 18% premium to its prior closing price.

Unity said the board did a thorough evaluation of the AppLovin proposal with assistance from outside financial and legal advisers and they unanimously determined it was not in the best interests of Unity’s shareholders nor would it be better than Unity’s merger agreement with IronSource.

Unity CEO John Riccitiello said in a statement, “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. We remain committed to and enthusiastic about Unity’s agreement with ironSource and the substantial benefits it will create for our shareholders and Unity creators.”

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Unity said the IronSource deal would create the industry’s first end-to-end platform to power creators’ success as they build, run, manage, grow, and monetize live games and real-time 3D content