Unity Defended the $4.4 Billion Deal with ironSource

Last week, it became known that Unity is going to merge with an Israeli app monetization platform ironSource. Following the news, many users of the Unity engine started to criticize the company for its deal with ironSource which was infamous as a malware provider.

Among many developers, ironSource was known as a creator of installCore, a program for distributing and installing applications on PCs. The program allowed software creators to use monetization and install unwanted files on PCs which caused anti-malware software to block installCore from running on computers.

ironSource later discontinued the program, however, developers still expressed their concerns about the fact that Unity is merging with a company that is associated with malware.

Recently, Unity addressed developers' criticism and defended the $4.4 billion deal. In a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, the company explained that IronSource has not been distributing installCore for a long time. It also noted that the program has been called malicious only due to the actions of attackers who have abused its capabilities.

"We are seeing developers talking negatively about IronSource's involvement in malware campaigns or being behind malware spreading, referencing old articles about a historical desktop activity that was deprecated and spun off several years ago," Unity said. "Like any large-scale desktop advertising platform, despite monitoring and enforcement, the desktop platform occasionally suffered from 'bad actors' who tried to abuse the platform."

The company also added that IronSource is now entirely focused on building tools for mobile game and app developers, and it doesn't deal with programs for distributing apps and other software on PCs like installCore.

Unity announced that it entered into an agreement to merge with ironSource last Wednesday. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2022.