Unity holds buyout talks with Silver Lake and PIF at $25 billion valuation

Published 6 Nov 2026 · Games Atlas Editorial · Stated Intent & Exploration · Companies: Unity Technologies, Savvy Games Group, Electronic Arts, Scopely

Games Atlas summary: Reuters reports Unity held buyout talks with Silver Lake and Saudi Arabia's PIF. The discussions valued Unity around $25 billion, above its $21.5 billion market cap. Silver Lake already owns about 8% of Unity and sits on its board. The approach follows the same consortium's $55 billion take-private of Electronic Arts in August.

Deal mechanics still unsettled

• Reuters says Unity has been working with an investment bank to assess its options.
• No agreement has been reached, and the terms could still change.
• Silver Lake invested up to $400 million in Unity in 2017.
• Egon Durban, Silver Lake's CEO, holds a board seat requiring recusal in any sale.
• Unity shares rose about 4% in extended trading once the report broke.

A repeat of the EA playbook

• PIF ended up owning 93.4% of EA after the deal closed in August.
• Silver Lake retained 5.5%, and Affinity Partners holds the remaining 1.1%.
• PIF's Savvy Games Group operates under a $38 billion gaming mandate set in 2022.
• Savvy bought Scopely for $4.9 billion in 2023.
• Scopely then paid $3.5 billion for Niantic's games business.

Monetization timing and trust history

• Unity's Q3 revenue rose 32% YoY to $622.1 million, beating estimates.
• Unity posted its first GAAP profit since its 2020 IPO.
• The 2023 Runtime Fee, charging studios per install, triggered a developer backlash.
• CEO John Riccitiello exited weeks later; the fee was scrapped in September 2024.
• "Practically at war with our customers" - Matthew Bromberg, CEO, Unity

Neutral middleware status under pressure

• Unity's engine is already used by Scopely's Monopoly Go and Niantic's former Pokemon Go studio.
• Both studios already sit inside the PIF-Silver Lake-Affinity ownership group from the EA deal.
• Savvy chief Brian Ward said the fund does not plan to force changes on publishers.
• Owning the engine would place PIF above studios that compete using the same tool.
• PIF moved about $12 billion of listed gaming stakes, including Nintendo, into Savvy since January.

What this means

• For Publishers & Developers: Negotiate change-of-control and telemetry-firewall clauses into engine licenses before any ownership shift.
• For UA & Marketing: Audit which campaign and bid data flows to the engine-owned ad network.
• For Service Vendors: Pitch engine-migration and porting audits to rival studios wary of shared-owner engine dependency.

Sources

• Saudi Arabia’s PIF and investment firm Silver Lake have reportedly been in talks to buy Unity | VGC (videogameschronicle.com)
• Report: Silver Lake and PIF explore $25bn deal to acquire Unity | PocketGamer.biz (pocketgamer.biz)
• The Saudi-led consortium that bought EA is in talks to acquire Unity, says Reuters – Mobilegamer.biz (mobilegamer.biz)
• After EA, Silver Lake and PIF Reportedly Want Unity (dualshockers.com)