Mobile marketing company AppLovin announced on Tuesday that it has made an offer to buy gaming giant Unity Software in a $17.54 billion all-stock deal. The companies said that AppLovin will offer $58.85 for each Unity share.
The announcement came a year after AppLovin bought MoPub's mobile advertising network, Twitter, for $1.05 billion. In September 2013, MoPub was purchased by Twitter for $350 million.
AppLovin, founded in 2012 by CEO Adam Foroughi, John Krystynak and Andrew Karam, is a mobile advertising business that bills itself as a complete mobile gaming platform for developers to grow their apps. The proposed deal will give Unity 55% of the company's outstanding shares, representing about 49% of the voting rights.
In 2020, we covered Unity after the San Francisco-based maker of 3 D gaming software raised $1.3 billion in an initial public offering IPO. The IPO price came above the expected range of $44 to $48 a share. The share of Unity rose to $68.85, raising more than $1.3 billion at a $13.6 billion valuation.
Unity enables developers to create games and other computer-generated entertainment, and its game engine runs thousands of console, mobile and PC titles. As of 2018, Unity has created 60 percent of the augmented reality and virtual reality content. As of 2018, Unity software is used to create more than 50% of all new mobile games.
In 2004 Unity was founded in Denmark by David Helgason, Joachim Ante and Nicholas Francis as Over the Edge Entertainment. The company changed its name to Unity Technologies in 2007. Unity is the creator of the world's leading real-time 3D development platform, giving users the most powerful and accessible tools to create, operate, and monetize experiences in the real-time world.
The 16-year-old gaming giant has business from game makers such as EA, Microsoft, and Zynga. The sponsors include DFJ, Sequoia Capital, and Silver Lake Partners.