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Some folks in this thread are characterizing this as a one-sided acquisition but what I did not realize was that ironSource is a public company ironSource ltd:

Some folks in this thread are characterizing this as a one-sided acquisition but what I did not realize was that ironSource is a public company ironSource ltd: mkt cap ~3bn Unity ltd: mkt cap 10bn This is an all-stock deal https://seekingalpha.com/news/3856307-ironsource-surges-after-unity-agrees-to-acquire-in-44b-all-stock-deal https://seekingalpha.com/news/3856307-ironsource-surges-afte... Ironsource also has 30-50% the number of employees as Unity: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ironsource https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/ironsource https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/unity-technologies https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/unity-technologies So this definitely can be characterized as a merger.

thsbrown 4y ago
Given that Unity and ironSource stock prices have both dropped fairly substantially I wonder how that factors in to the deal going through at this time. Does that make this a better deal for one vs the other? It says ironSource share will trade for ~10% of a Unity share. Given that Unity is at around ~$33 a share and ironSource is ~$3 a share was the attempt to just combine forces for the benefit of both parties? Sorry if this is coming off as a dumb question, trying to understand how this works to the benefit of disadvantage of them both.
- telchior 4y ago
  To me this looks like typical ad industry consolidation. It's part of the eternal circle of advertising: when a new ad format shows up (radio, TV, web, mobile, etc) a zillion little companies pop up. Twenty years later there are just a handful of big players. Unity made the choice to get into ads quite a few years ago when they acquired a company called Applifier. They ended up doing really well in mobile ads. IronSource, similarly, has done pretty well. But they're now competing with companies like Google, Facebook and Apple who have way more weight to throw around. At the least, if Unity had not done this acquisition, it leaves IronSource to be acquired or merged with someone else. You could say, why is Unity in the ad business at all? But they're in way too deep to back out now. Ads are a huge chunk of their revenue. Trying to gobble up smaller competitors just makes sense in terms of trying to be one of the eventual survivors.
- yywwbbn 4y ago
  Well Unity is paying a 70% premium over what Iron Source was worth yesterday so it doesn’t sound like such a great decision financially. Also the absolute share price is not really that relevant since companies hardly ever have the same amount of shares.

thsbrown 4y ago

Given that Unity and ironSource stock prices have both dropped fairly substantially I wonder how that factors in to the deal going through at this time. Does that make this a better deal for one vs the other? It says ironSource share will trade for ~10% of a Unity share. Given that Unity is at around ~$33 a share and ironSource is ~$3 a share was the attempt to just combine forces for the benefit of both parties? Sorry if this is coming off as a dumb question, trying to understand how this works to the benefit of disadvantage of them both.

telchior 4y ago
To me this looks like typical ad industry consolidation. It's part of the eternal circle of advertising: when a new ad format shows up (radio, TV, web, mobile, etc) a zillion little companies pop up. Twenty years later there are just a handful of big players. Unity made the choice to get into ads quite a few years ago when they acquired a company called Applifier. They ended up doing really well in mobile ads. IronSource, similarly, has done pretty well. But they're now competing with companies like Google, Facebook and Apple who have way more weight to throw around. At the least, if Unity had not done this acquisition, it leaves IronSource to be acquired or merged with someone else. You could say, why is Unity in the ad business at all? But they're in way too deep to back out now. Ads are a huge chunk of their revenue. Trying to gobble up smaller competitors just makes sense in terms of trying to be one of the eventual survivors.
yywwbbn 4y ago
Well Unity is paying a 70% premium over what Iron Source was worth yesterday so it doesn’t sound like such a great decision financially. Also the absolute share price is not really that relevant since companies hardly ever have the same amount of shares.