Unity's $4.4bn malware mistake? | This Week In Business
James Batchelor
Editor-in-Chief
Friday 15th July 2022
Developers are not overly happy with Unity this week.
The reason? Wednesday's announcement that the company is merging with IronSource, a provider of software and tools designed to help developers with monetisation, user acquisition, retention and all those other -tion words that are essential to thriving in the mobile games market.
STAT | $4.4 billion -- Approximate value of the all-stock deal, a 74% premium over the 30-day average ratio of IronSource's stock
Unity positioned the deal as yet another M&A deal to help developers that already use its engine and other services, following its purchase of Weta Digital, Parsec, SyncSketch and Ziva Dynamics.
QUOTE | "If you don't know IronSource, they bring a proven record of helping creators focus on what creators do best -- bringing great apps and user experiences to life - while enabling business expansion in the app economy" - Unity introducing its newest acquisition.
Of course, if you follow enough Unity developers on social media, chances are that's not the "proven record" you've been reading about this week.
The issue centres primarily around InstallCore, IronSource's first product. Released in 2010, this was a program that served as an installer for internet-based applications. It was classified by several companies as malware, and has since been discontinued (but, as seasoned PR Cary Kwok told us this week, it can take years to repair a brand's publication. The frustration from developers against IronSource proves this).
QUOTE | "... a family of bundles that installs more than one application on the user's computer, usually by combining a popular title with one or more adware programs" - Malwarebytes' description of
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