Mobile marketing platform AppLovin went public just over a month after announcing its decision. The company raised $1.8 billion in its initial public offering.
AppLovin priced its shares at $80 on NASDAQ, and an IPO gave it a market capitalization of $28.6 billion. According to Financial Times, it is “one of the biggest public debuts of the year.”
This result, however, is slightly less than a prognosis given a few days ago. AppLovin intended to raise $2.13 billion at valuation exceeding $30 billion.
The offering was led by Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Bank of America, and KKR. The latter is a private equity group that invested $400 million in AppLovin in 2018. During an IPO, KKR managed to keep an $8.6 billion stake and 67.4 percent of the voting power.
AppLovin has also made 15 M&A deals worth $1.1 billion since 2018. It makes it an owner of 12 studios, including Magic Tavern (creators of Project Makeover), Machine Zone (developers of Game of War), and Peoplefun (creators of Wordscapes).
In February, AppLovin announced its decision to acquire Adjust, another global mobile marketing company. Bloomberg estimated the deal at $1 billion.