Report: Silver Lake and PIF explore $25bn deal to acquire Unity

• The potential deal would follow the consortium's $55 billion acquisition of Electronic Arts.
• Unity's third-quarter revenue rose 32% to $622.1 million, with growth in advertising and game development.
• Unity recorded its first quarterly GAAP profit since going public in 2020.

Silver Lake and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) have reportedly held talks to acquire Unity in a deal that could value the game engine and ads firm at around $25 billion.

Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, said the investors had approached Unity in recent weeks. 

Silver Lake already owns about 8% of the game engine company, while Unity was  said to have been working with an investment bank to assess its options. No deal has been agreed and the terms could still change, the report claimed.

Gaming ties

The potential acquisition would mark another major gaming investment for Silver Lake and PIF, which were part of the consortium that took Electronic Arts private in a $55bn deal that closed earlier this year in August.

PIF subsidiary Savvy Games Group, has also been working with Unity under a memorandum of understanding to support game development in Saudi Arabia. 

In September, reports also emerged that PIF was considering merging Electronic Arts with Savvy Games Group to bring its gaming businesses under one roof. 

Unity is one of the most widely used game engines in the industry, used by thousands of mobile, PC and console games. Its customers include Monopoly Go developer Scopely and Niantic, the company behind Pokémon Go - now called Scopely Explore. Unity has also been expanding its ads business with Vector as it aims to compete with the likes of AppLovin in the space.

While Saudi Arabia's PIF has appeared to pull back on its investments in some sectors this year, a move for Unity would signal the continuation of its gaming expansion.

Learn more  about the MENA games industry at Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan on November 7th and 8th.