Unity investors have reacted to the board’s rejection of an acquisition offer from AppLovin. As a result, the company’s shares dropped shortly after the news.
At the moment of writing, Unity stock is trading at $54.3 per share, down 7.13% in the last 24 hours.
Yesterday, Unity’s board of directors stated that AppLovin’s offer was “not in the best interests of Unity shareholders.” The company recommended that stakeholders vote in favor of the previously announced $4.4 billion acquisition of ironSource.
“The clear conclusion is that the AppLovin proposal wasn’t likely to lead to a superior proposal,” Unity CEO John Riccitiello told CNBC on August 15. “And we’re highly convicted about the positives for the IronSource merger, where we can do better by way for customers and better by way for shareholders.”
It is worth noting that Unity would have had to terminate its deal with ironSource if it accepted AppLovin’s offer to acquire the game software developer in a $17.5 billion deal.
The two mobile app marketing firms are rivals, so AppLovin didn’t want its competitor to be a part of the new combined company. On top of that, AppLovin’s proposal implied that it would control 51% of voting rights following the merger.