Unity reportedly in buyout talks with Silver Lake and PIF
The prospective leveraged buyout would put a widely used game engine under new ownership, following the investors' Electronic Arts acquisition.
Unity Software is discussing a potential acquisition with Silver Lake and Saudi Arabia's Private Investment Fund, Game Developer reports, citing Reuters. Reuters says PIF approached Unity and Silver Lake about a full buyout; its sources describe the prospective transaction as a leveraged buyout.
Silver Lake already holds eight percent of Unity. The two investors recently took Electronic Arts private through a leveraged buyout, and both are among Scopely's owners. Scopely uses Unity for Pokémon Go and Monopoly Go.
For developers, the talks raise the prospect of an ownership change at a major technology supplier. Unity says its engine powers more than half of mobile games and a large share of PC and console games.
- acquisitions
- game engines
- private equity
