AppLovin drops bid to buy Unity after $17.5 billion bid fails

Mobile tech company AppLovin has dropped plans to buy video game engine Unity, following a failed – and unsolicited – bid worth $17.5 billion last month.

AppLovin announced it was backing down in a statement last night (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz), saying it had instead decided to stay on “its path as an indie market leader.”

Unity rejected AppLovin’s offer within a week of its presentation and said at the time that it was “not in the best interests of Unity shareholders”.

Unity, which works on one of the world’s most popular game engines, will instead pursue merger plans with IronSource, an Israeli company focused on app monetization.

2022 has seen plenty of mergers and acquisitions in the video game industry, following Xbox’s eye-opening $7.5 billion purchase of Bethesda last year.

The deals announced so far include Sony’s purchase of Destiny maker Bungie ($3.6 billion), Take-Two’s acquisition of mobile phone giant Zynga ($12.7 billion), and Microsoft’s ongoing $68.7 billion bid to buy Activision Blizzard – which is currently being scrutinized by anti-competitive regulators. .