Unity 上市

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第一次知道Unity 在上学期间，接触了用引擎完成特效制作。从那时候起我就知道他们的基本运营模式并坚信这是个好公司，只要运营思路不变。
那么今天，他上市了！ 我报了个单 limit 在69美元美股，他的ipo价格是54，让我们拭目以待。
我并没有在彭博社找到很好的文章，但我常用的market watch倒是有个还算不错的，请见以下：
Unity-software-ipo-5-things-to-know-about-the-videogame-engine-company
Unity ipo的五个重要信息点


不愿意看长篇的我直接中文总结加我自己的想法在这里好了：
1，Unity思路好，早在最早的时候我就发现他并不太靠卖产品挣钱，而是更深层的和游戏开发人员绑定在这一起。包括特效制作在内，如果有经验的会知道习惯，包括语言习惯，环境习惯在不管是影视还是游戏制作中都很重要，这让他会持续地有很好的市场。从单一销售变成服务提供商。就等于从卖房子变成又卖房子还出租商铺。
2， IPO的恰到好处，根据文章提到他的主要竞争对手Epic（也就是虚幻，我看10分钟就吐）陷入各种麻烦，现在市场火爆，还有这种情况作为助力显然是个不错的情况。
3， 私募的持仓，这个好理解，有金主站台嘛！ 红杉资本能让自己亏了吗？
4， 非游戏市场增长，也就是我之前接触的特效。我们这么理解，如果一个一直做游戏的，在影视火爆的时候跳槽去了迪士尼，因为他会Unity显然他可以在迪士尼获得好职位，那么反推回来一群这样的人就会让迪士尼选择用unity开发这个电影。倒过来同样，迪士尼跳槽过来做资料片，然后做游戏特效那么这个游戏团队多少也会受影响。
5，并购玩的也挺溜。一家公司其实到最后增长会有个极限，越趋近这个极限就没啥增长了。比如微软，全球就这么多电脑，他没法解决非洲人因为没电脑所以不买windows这种问题。那么他会选择并购更多的公司来构建一个生态，或者自己开发。比如xbox，比如office全套等等，unity显然这部分肯干会干也干的很不错。
这五点基本涵盖了所有高增长性的，有科技含量的企业的所有重要亮点，更何况不管影视还是游戏都是非常高速增长的市场，他的产品在移动端也能有作为。上一个如此广阔的科技企业就是英伟达。这么多年英伟达从血战显卡一路打到芯片龙头老大的位置非常传奇，Unity是否是游戏引擎届的英伟达我无法确定，就如同多年前英伟达竞争环境也是群狼环伺，现在的unity有虚幻这种一样的引擎制作商，有寒霜这样上下游齐全，背靠大树的好对手。但是这一两年因为市场的高速增长，肉都抢不完，汤还剩下的时候，除了系统性和人事风险，其他我认为问题不大。（尽管我是因为投机买的但我并不拒绝这次波段之后直接或再次逢低买入）
Unity Software Inc. is known for making software to create videogames, but the company hopes to make the world more like a videogame by pushing its platform to designers from nongaming fields.
Founded in 2004, Unity’s main business is its gaming engine, which competes with Epic Games Inc.’s Unreal Engine. Five years ago, however, the company realized its 3-D tools could be used for other applications outside of gaming.
“We’re a company born from gaming,” Unity chief executive John Riccitiello said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “But we see so much more.”

Late Thursday, Unity U  priced its initial public offering at $52 a share, according to a person familiar with the matter, after the company on Wednesday raised its price range to $44 to $48 a share from last week’s expectation of $34 to $42 apiece. With 25 million shares in the offering, and options to underwriters for another 3.8 million shares to cover overallotments, Unity stands to raise at least $1.3 billion. Underwriters include Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, BofA Securities, and Barclays.

Unity will have up to 267.2 million shares outstanding after the offering, including overallotment options, giving Unity a valuation of $13.7 billion, which would more than double the company’s valuation from July 2019 of about $6 billion. The company will have a single class of common stock, but the board reserves the right to issue up to 100 million shares of stock to fight off a hostile takeover.

So far in 2020, it has been a good year for IPOs. The Renaissance IPO ETF IPO is up 54%, compared with a 22% gain in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index COMP and a 4% advance in the S&P 500 index SPX. Unity’s IPO is expected to arrive at the end of a wave of software IPOs, with Snowflake Inc. SNOW, JFrog Inc. FROG and Sumo Logic Inc. SUMO already going public earlier in the week.

Unity is expected to price its IPO Thursday evening and begin trading Friday morning on the New York Stock Exchange. Here’s what you need to know about the company.
Gaming-as-a-service is a new videogame standard, and Unity helps developers make and maintain those games
把游戏当作服务来提供是新的游戏市场标准，Unity帮助开发人员制作并维护这些游戏

During an age in which everything related to technology is offered “as-a-service,” the videogame industry is also being structured as such, Chris Gardner, Forrester research director, told MarketWatch.

Most people consume their movies, TV and music through a subscription service, and videogames are following that trend — They are no longer pieces of software bought in a box, but rather streamed, dynamic and easily updated pieces of software that are downloaded or accessed through a subscription across multiple platforms with in-app purchases.

Smaller developers hoping to make games that fit those trends can turn to Unity or Epic Games, which is also known for its popular “Fortnite” game. Unity has offered its gaming engine — a software system that provides a framework in which developers can build their games without having to reinvent the wheel — for free and only starts charging a licensing fee after a certain revenue milestone has been crossed, Gardner said.
“Unity is very attractive to independent developers,” Gardner said.

Unity estimates that its gaming engine was in 53% of the top 1,000 mobile games on Apple Inc.’s AAPL App Store and Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG GOOGL Google Play in 2019, and that more than 50% of mobile games, PC games and console games combined were made with its engine. The company also notes that 93 of the top 100 game-development studios by global revenue in 2019 were Unity customers.
Unity and Epic compete with their gaming engines and bolt-on services for game developers, but Epic, unlike Unity, has its own line of games and game store.
Unity brought in $541.8 million in revenue for a $163.2 million loss in 2019, compared with $380.8 million revenue for a $131.6 million loss in 2018. Epic’s annual revenue in 2019 was estimated at $4.2 billion, according to Forrester.

IPO timing just happens to coincide with Epic Games kerfuffle
IPO时间的恰到好处和主要竞争对手（虚幻的制作商）出的问题

Epic Games was dropped from Apple and Google’s app stores when the company loudly disputed how much of a cut the tech giants should get from carrying games like “Fortnite” on Aug. 13.
Unity filed its original S-1 with the SEC nine days later.

After Apple blocked access to Epic’s Unreal Engine, a judge forced the company to continue allowing access. While there is no “significant threat” to the average game developer from Apple and Google for using Epic’s engine in their games, “it does spook them,” Forrester’s Gardner said.
That, in itself, could sway smaller developers to Unity from Epic, he said.

Unity’s growth is tied to adoption in nongaming markets
Unity的非游戏市场所带来的市场增长

In its S-1, Unity said it believes it addresses a total market of about $29 billion “across both gaming and other industries.”
“Today, Fortune and Global 500 companies in industries such as architecture, engineering, construction, automotive, transportation, manufacturing, film, television and retail are using Unity across many new use cases, including automobile and building design, online and augmented reality product configurators, autonomous driving simulation, and augmented reality workplace safety training,” Unity said in its S-1.

Forrester analyst William McKeon-White pointed out that graphics engines like Unity and Epic’s are already being used in nongaming applications, such as building real-time virtual sets on giant LED-screens in Walt Disney Co.’s DIS “Star Wars” television show “The Mandalorian.”

“That’s going to become increasingly common in the future,” McKeon-White said. Both Unity and Epic Games are targeting real-world applications of graphics rendering in areas outside of videogames.

VC firms are positioned to be the big winners
私募的持仓

After the offering, early investors and VC firms combined will own a more than a 50% stake in the company. Sequoia Capital will have a 21.8% stake, Silver Lake with 16.4%, JA Technologies with 7.2%, and D1 Capital Partners with 4.8%.
Sequoia was first in with a $5.5 million investment in 2009, while Silver Lake came later with a $250 million investment in 2017. Then, last year, D1 Capital Partners, Sequoia, and Silver Lake, and others bought $525 million in stock from shareholders who were mostly employees.

Unity is not shy about acquiring companies
Unity也放得开进行并购

Since it was founded in 2004, Unity has acquired more than a dozen companies, with five of those mergers arriving in a recent two-year stretch.

In January 2019, Unity bought cross-platform voice and text communication tools provider Vivox for $123.4 million. In September 2019, it bought analytics, messaging and ad campaign management tools company deltaDNA for $53.1 million, followed by a December acquisition of AI and machine learning company Artomatix for $48.8 million. Then in April, Unity bought developer applications company Finger Food Studios Inc. for $46.8 million. Not listed in the S-1 was Unity’s Aug. 20 acquisition of software configuration management company Códice Software for an undisclosed price.

Unity said in its SEC filings that it may use some proceeds from the offering to fund acquisitions “that complement and expand the functionality of our platform, add to our technology expertise and bolster our leadership position by providing access to new customers or markets.