Unity have announced that its shareholders will vote on the proposed merger with ironSource on Friday, October 7th.
This merger was first announced in July, however an attempted acquisition of Unity by AppLovin in August temporarily put those plans up in the air.
As part of the proposed AppLovin acquisition, Unity would be required to scupper its planned merger, and in exchange Unity CEO John Riccitiello would take the position of CEO of the combined entity. This acquisition was seen by some as AppLovin’s attempt to maintain their own market share, as Unity is the platform of choice for around 70 per cent of mobile developers – and ironSource is a direct competitor to AppLovin.
Happy endings?
The upcoming vote will be the last chance for Unity to back out of the merger, however, a rejection is unlikely at this stage. An SEC filing from last month states that any company backing out of the deal would be required to pay $50 million to the other, with up to $20 million in additional fees if a cancellation came as a result of either company’s shareholders failing to approve the deal.
However, having already reaffirmed their commitment to the deal, Unity are unlikely to back out at this stage. In turn, ironSource is likely to proceed as planned, as doing so would increase their market share and cement their place at the top of the industry. As such, the merger is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2022, bringing one of the biggest news stories of 2022 to a close.
However, it should be emphasized that some analysts have stated that AppLovin are in a position to increase their offer should they hope to do so – however, this could see them offer Unity shareholders a larger cut of the combined company, and put the company at risk of greater losses.
Last month, we listed Unity as one of the top 50 mobile game makers of 2022.