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Unity and ironSource
Unity and ironSource
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Unity announced today that it has entered into an agreement to merge with ironSource, harnessing the company's tools, platform, technology, and talent 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.

We continue to believe that the world is a better place with more creators in it. Over the past year, we’ve been making sure we have the right tools and focus that are delivering the most value to our user community, particularly as the industry evolves. Today, games don’t launch - they live. Players want connection - they want to play with each other, and be social. And we see that these trends are extending beyond gaming.

As a result, we have focused on fine-tuning our platform of tools, solutions, and services that deliver and accelerate value to creators - regardless of what engine they choose to build on. From the general availability of Unity Gaming Services to our recent acquisitions of Parsec, SyncSketchWētā Digital, and Ziva Dynamics, to the work we continue to deliver in the core Unity tools and in Operate, we are focused on delivering outsized value for creators. 

Our vision is to provide creators with a powerful, flexible engine that they can realize their visions through - quickly and beautifully - while introducing the tools that help them learn and better understand their audiences, helping them to more quickly iterate and improve to build a robust and scalable business from. As we move closer to this vision today, we couldn’t be more excited about bringing ironSource into the Unity family.

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. ironSource’s suite of tools and solutions provides the majority of the world’s top games and many of the leading non-gaming apps with the monetization, marketing, analytics, and discovery capabilities they need to build and run scalable app-based businesses. The combination of both companies will accelerate Unity’s growth as a software company powering the creator economy end-to-end. For our community, it will drive tighter integration between Operate and Create solutions and deliver the best potential combination of value to creators, publishers, and advertisers - in games and beyond.

Turbocharging Operate Solutions value to creators

We believe that ironSource’s enhancements for Unity’s Operate Solutions will instantaneously yield immediate benefit to creators. Operate’s mission is to enable the success of our creators to deliver the best player experiences and build robust businesses. An important tool for this is Unity Ads - our monetization solution for mobile games that enables game developers to monetize their entire player base. Advertising has long been and we believe will continue to be the economic engine for mobile games, driving players into their games and driving revenue at scale.  Although advertising is facing some temporary challenges right now due to macroeconomic factors, this is a business that has proven itself resilient despite the many ups and downs of economic cycles and regulatory changes. By joining forces with ironSource, the right opportunity presented itself for Unity to go bold and further our mission to be the economic engine/driver for our creators' success so creators can continue their craft of making games. It also reinforces our strong conviction in the long-term strength and growth of the in-game advertising business. Unity and ironSource’s complementary data and product capabilities will give creators access to better funding for user acquisition (UA) and monetization to successfully scale their games and accelerate their economic performance. 

ironSource will also help creators expand cross-channel discovery, UA, and monetization channels for creators through Aura, and yield new creative and analytics capabilities through Luna. Moreover, the combined reach of Unity & ironSource’s 3B+ monthly active users (MAUs) provides scale and data benefits that will deliver better performance for customers, including improved return on ad spend (ROAS) for ad buyers and monetization for publishers.

Redefining the game engine – this is more than ads

With ironSource, Unity will take the linear process of making games and RT3D content and experiences and make it an interconnected and interactive one - creating the opportunity to innovate and improve at every step of the cycle. 

What if that process was no longer "first create; then monetize?”  What if creators had an engine for live games that by default enabled them to gain early indicators of success for their games through user acquisition of their prototype, and gave them a feedback loop to improve their games based on real player interactions as early in the process as possible? Unity and ironSource’s combined offerings will uniquely position the combined company as the only game creation and growth platform for creators.

This tighter integration between Unity’s Create and Operate means a more powerful flywheel and data feedback loop that further supports creators’ success and understanding of what’s working between gameplay, design and their monetization efforts. With the addition of SuperSonic, ironSource’s publishing solution, the combined company will also break down the barriers to publishing directly through the engine.

Unity provides the engine that takes ideas from inception to being viable businesses. This is an engine that negates the need for developers and the industry at large to reinvent the wheel each time a game is created. The gears of this include the tools to create, publish, run, monetize, and grow. It is this integration with ironSource, and the resulting interactivity and interoperability across the game lifecycle, that makes Unity + ironSource unique. It is our combined knowledge and passion for game developers that keeps us innovating to meet their needs today and in the future. 

We succeed only if creators succeed and with ironSource joining the Unity family, we will make it easier for them to do so in one centralized, integrated platform. 

Join the discussion on the Unity Forums.

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Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This communication includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by phrases such as “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “foresees,” “forecasts,” “estimates” or other words or phrases of similar import. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about the industry and markets in which Unity Software Inc. (“Unity”) and ironSource Ltd. (“ironSource”) operate and management’s beliefs and assumptions as to the timing and outcome of future events, including the transactions described in this communication. While Unity’s and ironSource’s management believe the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, such information is necessarily subject to uncertainties and may involve certain risks, many of which are difficult to predict and are beyond management’s control. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to the expected timing and likelihood of completion of the proposed transaction, including the timing, receipt and terms and conditions of any required governmental and regulatory approvals of the proposed transaction;  the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the merger agreement; the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against the parties and others following announcement of the merger agreement; the inability to consummate the transaction due to the failure to obtain the requisite stockholder approvals or the failure to satisfy other conditions to completion of the transaction; risks that the proposed transaction disrupts current plans and operations of Unity and ironSource; the ability to recognize the anticipated benefits of the transaction, including anticipated synergies; the amount of the costs, fees, expenses and charges related to the transaction; Unity’s expected stock buyback occurring as planned or at all;  and the other risks and important factors contained and identified in Unity’s and ironSource’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Committee (“SEC”), such as Unity’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K, and ironSource’s Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 and subsequent Current Reports on Form 6-K, any of which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this communication.

There can be no assurance that the proposed transaction will in fact be consummated. We caution investors not to unduly rely on any forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. Neither Unity nor ironSource is under any duty to update any of these forward-looking statements after the date of this communication, nor to conform prior statements to actual results or revised expectations, and neither Unity nor ironSource intends to do so.

Important Information for Investors and Stockholders

In connection with the proposed transaction, Unity expects to file with the SEC a registration statement on Form S-4 that will include a joint proxy statement of Unity and ironSource that also constitutes a prospectus of Unity, which joint proxy statement/prospectus will be mailed or otherwise disseminated to Unity’s and ironSource’s respective securityholders, as applicable, when it becomes available. Unity and ironSource also plan to file other relevant documents with the SEC regarding the proposed transaction. INVESTORS ARE URGED TO READ THE JOINT PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS AND OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE SEC IF AND WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE, BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION.

Investors and securityholders may obtain free copies of the registration statement and the joint proxy statement/prospectus (if and when it becomes available) and other relevant documents filed by Unity and ironSource with the SEC at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Copies of the documents filed by the companies will be available free of charge on their respective websites at www.unity.com and www.is.com.

Participants in Solicitation

Unity, ironSource and their respective directors and executive officers may be considered participants in the solicitation of proxies in connection with the proposed transaction. Information about the directors and executive officers of Unity is set forth in its proxy statement for its 2022 annual meeting of stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on April 20, 2022. Information about the directors and executive officers of ironSource is set forth in its Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, which was filed with the SEC on March 30, 2022. These documents can be obtained free of charge from the sources indicated above. Additional information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitations and a description of their direct and indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, will be contained in the joint proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC when they become available.

No Offer or Solicitation

This communication is not intended to and shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any vote of approval, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offer of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

 

July 12, 2022 in News | 4 min. read

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