首席技术官离职是一个小挫折而非大障碍

USA | Interactive EntertainmentUnity Equity ResearchJune 4, 2025 CTO Departure a Speed Bump not a Hump Unity's CTO, who was focused on Create, is leaving for personal reasonsunrelated to the business. Our convo with mgmt leads us to believe there willbe no impact to the ads side, where momentum is building under the leadershipof Felix Thé, who is leading Vector and has been at Unity for 8 yrs. Mgmt isconfident in the product roadmap and will backfill the CTO role over time. Wecontinue to believe the co is headed in the right direction. Maintain BUY. CTO departure, was focused on Create:The departure of CTO Steven Collins, who joined Unity 6months ago after 4 years as CTO of Candy Crush developer King, is a near-term speed bump forUnity's fresh management team. However, after speaking with the company it is clear that he isstepping down for purely personal reasons and that his primary focus as CTO was on the Createand game engine side of the business vs. Grow and ads. Unity plans to backfill the CTO position,but the primary leader behind the Vector and Grow transition is SVP of Tech, Grow, Felix Thé, whohas been with Unity for over 8 years. We do not see the CTO departure as a material impact onVector or the Grow side of Unity's business. Feedback on Unity Upgrade:Feedback from investors have been mixed. Most of the pushback hasbeen on recent ad checks showing Vector improvement is still very early. We agree Vector is early,but are encouraged on the new management team's operational discipline and renewed focus onthe advertising side of the business, and believe it is putting the right pieces in place. We expectVector impact on numbers will likely take multiple quarters to fully materialize, but are encouragedby the early trajectory. Checks over the coming quarters will be most important. Those morepositive on the name are positive on the management reset, potential to use the runtime data forad targeting, and are more encouraged by early Vector checks. Investors were also receptive to theidea that this industry isn't a zero-sum game, and Unity's ad platform becoming more performantdoes not require that spend coming at the expense of AppLovin. Similarly, that U does not have tooutperform APP to gain ad dollars, it needs to improve its own advertising performance, where wesee early signs of improvement. James Heaney * | Equity Analyst(212) 336-1171 | jheaney@jefferies.com Rayyana Matraji * | Equity Associate+1 (212) 707-6329 | rmatraji@jefferies.com Company Description Unity Unity is a real-time 3D development platform allowing users to create, operate, and monetize experiences across different industries. Company Valuation/Risks Valuation:Our PT is $29; 2026E EBITDA: $480M; FY2 EV/EBITDA Multiple: 29x. Risks: •Further regulations on advertising, including tightening from Apple's IDFA rules, such as banning fingerprinting techniques. Google could alsosurprise ad tech by having stricter rules than anticipated.•Internal development of game engine or advertising. Large customers may choose to internally build the tool sets currently licensed from Unity. In-house could provide a better differentiated product and, in the case of advertising, better margins.•High-growth software multiples rebound closer to historical levels over the past two years and Unity trades in line with that software peer group.This would have greater upside to our price target.•Volatility. Unity has a significant number of trading days with a stock move more than 5% in either direction; these large swings may continue. AppLovin Corp. Price target based on the average of our DCF analysis and 32x our FY26 adj. EBITDA estimate. Risks include further deterioration of mobile gaming spending and advertising demand from worsening macro conditions and further privacy changesfrom Apple, Google, and regulators impacting targeting. To the upside, a macro improvement would raise game spending and grow ad supply anddemand. Analyst Certification: I, Brent Thill, certify that all of the views expressed in this research report accurately reflect my personal views about the subject security(ies) and subjectcompany(ies). I also certify that no part of my compensation was, is, or will be, directly or indirectly, related to the specific recommendations or views expressedin this research report. I, James Heaney, certify that all of the views expressed in this research report accurately reflect my personal views about the subject security(ies) and subjectcompany(ies). I also certify that no part of my compensation was, is, or will be, directly or indirectly, related to the specific recommendations or views expressedin this research report. I, Rayyana Matraji, certify that all of the views expressed in this research report accurately reflect my personal views about the subject security(ies) and subjectcompany(ies). I also certify that no part of my compensation was, is, or will be, directly or indirectly, related to the specific recommendatio