After gobbling up EA, Saudi Arabia and private equity firm Silver Lake reportedly looking to buy Unity

After acquiring EA for $55bn earlier this year, Saudi Arabia and private equity firm Silver Lake are reportedly in the market for another massive video game company. And according to new reports, it's Unity.

Per Reuters, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Silver Lake - two major actors in the EA acquisition - are in talks to acquire the video game engine company for around $25bn. Silver Lake's Egon Durban already sits on the Unity Board of Directors, and the firm owns around eight percent of its shares already thanks to a $400m investment.

This $25bn valuation should be taken with a grain of salt for two core reasons. For one, it was decided prior to Unity's latest quarterly financial report, which included a 59% increase in strategic revenue year-over-year and net income of $122m. So this could propel the valuation upwards.

On the other hand, wider economic changes could have a detrimental effect. Reuters points out: "Strong ⁠growth in Unity's AI-powered Vector advertising platform helped it post its first quarterly profit on a GAAP basis since going public in September 2020." Given we've seen the generative AI sector take a major hit this week following the US midterm elections, it's possible companies using the tech may be viewed with more fiscal skepticism. Or, maybe this dip is just temporary. In short, take the $25bn valuation as a ballpark figure.

Unity has had something of an interesting past. There was of course the banana's runtime fee scandal of 2024 in which the company attempted to charge developers a fee on each game sale using the engine, which proved a PR nightmare and was quickly walked back. Unity also recently partnered with Google for AI-game creation platforms Google PlayGround and Unity Spark. Spark is shown to have created a Space Corridor game on its website that looks dubious at best - not exactly a resounding testament to the future.

The last time EA and Silver Lake bought something gaming related it was EA, a Western giant that would go on to lay off hundreds of staff and close BioWare months later. It is worth emphasising that the deal was a leveraged buyout, which saddles EA with substantial debt, whereas the exact nature of this proposed Unity deal is not confirmed. As such if it does happen, it may be a good ol' fashioned private acquisition, not this terms and conditions-laden deal that EA, in its newest guises, must contend with. We've already seen BioWare closed down as a result of this acquisition.

Expect more news about the Unity buyout when official information comes to light.