The Unity board of directors have rejected AppLovin’s unsolicited merger proposal and reaffirmed the company’s commitment to merging with app monetization platform IronSource.
In a press release sent out earlier today, Unity said its board wasn’t convinced that AppLovin’s proposal would “result in a superior proposal to Unity’s agreement with IronSource.”
“The Board of Directors has completed a thorough financial and strategic evaluation of the unsolicited proposal from AppLovin, with the assistance of outside financial and legal advisors, and has unanimously determined that it is not in the best interests of Unity shareholders and would not reasonably be expected to result in a ‘Superior Proposal’ as defined in Unity’s merger agreement with IronSource,” said the board.
“The Unity Board reaffirms its recommendation to Unity’s shareholders to vote in favor of the previously announced IronSource transaction and recommends against the unsolicited AppLovin proposal.”
AppLovin was proposing an all-stock merger with Unity in a deal that would’ve valued the engine maker at $20 billion. The marketing software company expressed a belief that its proposed deal would create an “unprecedented full stack solution for developers to create, monetize, measure and grow games.”
The deal, however, would’ve also scuppered Unity’s prevously announced merger with IronSource, which Unity said will allow it to form an “end-to-end platform that enables creators to more easily create, publish, run, monetize, and grow live games and RT3D content seamlessly.”
Unity’s merger with IronSource wasn’t well-received by the development community, with many taking issue with a perceived shift towards advertising revenue and IronSource’s past affiliation with malicious adware.
In today’s announcement, Unity CEO John Riccitiello said the company remains “committed and enthusiastic” about its agreement with IronSource and the “substantial benefits it will create for our shareholders and Unity creators.”
Unity has been making headlines for a myriad of reasons in recent weeks, and in its latest fiscal report revealed it has signed a “multi-million dollar” contract to help the U.S. government with defense.
That deal was announced less than a year after some Unity workers questioned the ethics of working on military contracts and called on the engine maker to be more transparent about how its technologies will be used.