Unity Software has held acquisition talks in recent weeks with a consortium that includes Silver Lake and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, according to a Reuters report published on November 5 that cited people familiar with the confidential discussions. The group discussed a valuation of about 25 billion dollars for the game engine maker before its latest earnings release.
Unity’s market capitalisation rose to about 21.5 billion dollars after its third quarter results, and its shares moved higher in extended trading after the report appeared. The company is said to be working with an investment bank to evaluate its options following the approach. No agreement has been signed, and the terms could change or the talks could end without a deal.
Silver Lake is not an outside bidder. It invested up to 400 million dollars in Unity in 2017, holds about 8 percent of the company, and its co-chief executive Egon Durban sits on Unity’s board, a position from which he would typically recuse himself in sale discussions. PIF, through its Savvy Games Group, already works with Unity under a memorandum of understanding on game development in Saudi Arabia.
The reported approach follows the same consortium’s 55 billion dollar take-private of Electronic Arts, which closed earlier this year. A Unity deal at the discussed valuation would be among the largest private equity acquisitions in gaming software, and would move the engine used to build a large share of mobile and PC games into the same private ownership group.
Unity declined to comment on the report, and Silver Lake and PIF did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Because the story rests on a single wire report citing unnamed sources, it is carried here as reported interest, not as a launched bid.