Video gaming software development company Unity Software Inc. (U) went public on New York Stock Exchange on September 17. Shares of the company were going for $52 in the initial public offering.
The company’s services are majorly used by game developers, architects and artists. Filmmakers also use the services to create, run and monetize 3D content.
Data records show that in 2019 more that 50% of top games available on Google Play Store and Apple Store were created using Unity’s software platform.
A day after the IPO, shares of Unity soared to highs of $75 giving the Silicon Valley based company a market valuation of over $18 billion further pushing up demand of new tech stocks.
The company’s chief executive John Riccitiello, said they were astonished by how the stock boomed in tits IPO debut. “Going public is good for discipline. We can also compensate our employees with more transparency. We picked the date earlier this year, and we never expected it’s going to be a hot IPO market,” said the CEO.
A majority of companies require their employees to hold onto the stock for a certain period following an IPO however Unity gives employees chance to sell 15% of their granted shares on the day of IPO.
This was the second over $1 billion IPO by a tech company held in the same week after cloud based data-warehousing firm Snowflake Inc. (SNOW) went public on the same week fetching more than $3 billion in its NYSE debut.
