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They had made previous ‘commitments’ to Wall St that they had a way to circumvent Apple Tracking Transparency by using ML to do the tracking without all the dev

by grork 4y ago

They had made previous ‘commitments’ to Wall St that they had a way to circumvent Apple Tracking Transparency by using ML to do the tracking without all the device information. It didn’t work, and their stock tanked when they announced it in quarterly results. This _seems_ like an attempt to shore up that part of the business. Speculation: They know the returns from the game engine/vr-ar future will take a long time to arrive. So they need — given they’re a publicly traded company - to ‘show them the money’, and they fell down the ‘ads!’ hole, and I’m not sure they’ll get out of it.

ehnto 4y ago
> They had made previous ‘commitments’ to Wall St that they had a way to circumvent Apple Tracking Transparency by using ML to do the tracking without all the device information. Those pesky consumers, who have explicitly chosen not to be tracked. When Apple Tracking Transparency first came about, many of my clients had a hard time grasping the situation. They couldn't understand why we couldn't track them anyway, even though within the agreements between all parties it was clear that the consumer has not allowed you to track them. The attitude for some business owners is that their engagement with their consumers is not an agreement between two parties, consumers are just feedstock for their advertising apparatus.
amatecha 4y ago
Wait, for real? Do you have any links or anything about Unity working to circumvent Apple Tracking Transparency? That really puts the merger into perspective and shows their intent is even more reprehensible than it initially seemed...
- grork 4y ago
  Here you go: https://archive.ph/MwXxQ https://archive.ph/MwXxQ (Original link, but paywalled: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/unity-software-loses-5-billion-in-market-cap-after-apples-changes-lead-to-self-inflicted-wound-11652291876 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/unity-software-loses-5-bil...)
  - amatecha 4y ago
    Ahh perfect, thanks so much!
eikenberry 4y ago
And I bet the upper management liquidated a bunch of stock between that commitment and quarterly results. My last company was acquired by a company that did a similar pump and dump but used the pump to buy my company followed quickly by all our "new" upper management cashing out. My 14K in stock was worth <300 when I left the company. I still don't understand how no one sued or jailed for that fiasco.
coffee_beqn 4y ago
Even if AR and VR becomes a thing that won’t buy that many more licenses from them. They already offer 10(?) platform targets. I would imagine the number of dev seats stays about the same as studios shift or expand to the new platform. It’ll be quite a low multiplier

by grork 4y ago

ehnto 4y ago

> They had made previous ‘commitments’ to Wall St that they had a way to circumvent Apple Tracking Transparency by using ML to do the tracking without all the device information. Those pesky consumers, who have explicitly chosen not to be tracked. When Apple Tracking Transparency first came about, many of my clients had a hard time grasping the situation. They couldn't understand why we couldn't track them anyway, even though within the agreements between all parties it was clear that the consumer has not allowed you to track them. The attitude for some business owners is that their engagement with their consumers is not an agreement between two parties, consumers are just feedstock for their advertising apparatus.

amatecha 4y ago

Wait, for real? Do you have any links or anything about Unity working to circumvent Apple Tracking Transparency? That really puts the merger into perspective and shows their intent is even more reprehensible than it initially seemed...

grork 4y ago
Here you go: https://archive.ph/MwXxQ https://archive.ph/MwXxQ (Original link, but paywalled: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/unity-software-loses-5-billion-in-market-cap-after-apples-changes-lead-to-self-inflicted-wound-11652291876 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/unity-software-loses-5-bil...)
- amatecha 4y ago
  Ahh perfect, thanks so much!

eikenberry 4y ago

And I bet the upper management liquidated a bunch of stock between that commitment and quarterly results. My last company was acquired by a company that did a similar pump and dump but used the pump to buy my company followed quickly by all our "new" upper management cashing out. My 14K in stock was worth <300 when I left the company. I still don't understand how no one sued or jailed for that fiasco.

coffee_beqn 4y ago

Even if AR and VR becomes a thing that won’t buy that many more licenses from them. They already offer 10(?) platform targets. I would imagine the number of dev seats stays about the same as studios shift or expand to the new platform. It’ll be quite a low multiplier