ironSource Ltd. is an

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

i software company that focuses on developing technologies for app

monetization Monetization ( also spelled monetisation) is, broadly speaking, the process of converting something into money. The term has a broad range of uses. In banking, the term refers to the process of converting or establishing something into legal tend ...

and distribution, with its core products focused on the app economy. Among others, ironSource was chosen as one of the '20 hottest startups' in 2013 and was listed in the

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

"Billion Dollar Startup Club". In September 2015, ironSource was named by the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

as a Global Growth Company. ironSource has also been named one of the hottest pre-IPO tech companies by

Business Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...

, and one of Israel's most innovative companies by

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...

. ironSource has over 1000 employees, with more than half dedicated to research and development. Headquartered in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

, ironSource also has offices in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, and

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

History

Founded in 2010 in

, ironSource provides platforms and tools for application developers including analytics, user monetization, conversion, acquisition and optimization for all devices. In the first quarter of 2013, ironSource acquired Israeli

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

technology and network company AfterDownload Ltd. for $28 million, to expand its integrated distribution, installation and value-building tools for software developers, publishers and advertisers. In August 2013 Ironsource announced merger talks with advertising company

Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn'' * he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel'' * peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru'' * elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...

, but the deal was called off after Babylon lost high-value contracts with

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

and

Yahoo Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...

due to violations. Also in August 2013, ironSource opened an office in San Francisco. In May 2014, they opened an office in Beijing, China. In April 2015, ironSource opened an office in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. In Fall 2014, ironSource raised approximately $85M from a group of international investors and acquired the mobile game studio Upopa. At this time IronSource was considered a key company in Israel's 'Download Valley'."Hate Pop-Up Ads? Microsoft tries drawing line in the sand"
Wall Street Journal, Orr Hirschauge, June 4, 2014 In September 2015, ironSource merged Supersonic into its mobile operation for a price estimated to be $200 million. The new organization re-branded itself as ironSource. In June 2016, ironSource announced the acquisition of Sequoia-backed video technology company StreamRail. In August 2017, ironSource was reported to be "in advanced talks" to be bought for $1.8 billion by a consortium of investment funds. In October 2019,

CVC Capital Partners CVC Capital Partners is a Luxembourg-based French private equity and investment advisory firm with approximately US$133 billion of assets under management and approximately €157 billion in secured commitments since inception across American, E ...

acquired a minority stake in ironSource for over $400 million. In February 2020, ironSource announced the launch of its new mobile game studio, Supersonic Studios. Within a couple of months, Supersonic Studios "scored three games in the top 10 mobile charts", with their games amassing more than 35 million downloads. In January 2021, ironSource acquired mobile advertisement quality measurement company Soomla. In February 2021, ironSource acquired Luna Labs, the creative management platform and creator of mobile advertisement creation tools like Luna Playable and Luna Replay. On June 29 2021, ironSource went public via a merger with an SPAC backed by

private equity firm A private equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including leve ...

Thoma Bravo Advantage. In July 2022,

Unity Technologies Unity Software Inc. (doing business as Unity Technologies) is a video game software development company based in San Francisco. It was founded in Denmark in 2004 as Over the Edge Entertainment (OTEE) and changed its name in 2007. Unity Technolo ...

agreed to buy ironSource in an all-stock deal worth US$4.4 billion. On completion of the deal, Unity shareholders will own about 73.5% of the combined company and current IronSource shareholders will keep about 26.5%. The deal was met with criticism from game developers, due to ironSource's affiliation with

malware Malware (a portmanteau for ''malicious software'') is any software intentionally designed to cause disruption to a computer, server, client, or computer network, leak private information, gain unauthorized access to information or systems, depri ...

. Unity completed the buyout in November 2022.

InstallCore

In February 2011, the company released its first product,

InstallCore InstallCore was an installation and content distribution platform created by ironSource, including a software development kit (SDK) for Windows and Mac OS X. The program allowed those using it for distribution to include monetization by adverti ...

, as an open-source SDK for a cross-platform installer creation tool and advertisement-delivery platform. InstallCore was observed to use stealth techniques to avoid observation by anti-virus and other security software, and to bypass validation checks by signing programs with illegitimate security certificates. This was classified as a

Potentially Unwanted Application A potentially unwanted program (PUP) or potentially unwanted application (PUA) is software that a user may perceive as unwanted or unnecessary. It is used as a subjective tagging criterion by security and parental control products. Such software ma ...

by Sophos in 2014 and by Microsoft Essential in 2015, with

Malwarebytes Malwarebytes Inc. is an American Internet security company that specializes in protecting home computers, smartphones, and companies from malware and other threats. It has offices in Santa Clara, California; Clearwater, Florida; Tallinn, Estonia ...

identifying the program as "a family of bundlers that installs more than one application on the user's computer". The product was discontinued in 2020 and is no longer supported by the company.

Applications

In September 2014, ironSource acquired gaming company Upopa. ironSource is one of the first mobile SDK providers to support

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated content. The content can span multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be de ...

advertisements for game developers. On October 3, 2018, ironSource released an advertisement revenue measurement tool that allows developers to measure the effectiveness of advertisement campaigns aligned with other similar tools used amongst developers as means of evaluating return on advertisement spend (ROAS).

References

External links

*{{Official website Digital marketing companies of Israel Companies based in Tel Aviv Israeli companies established in 2010 Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Special-purpose acquisition companies 2022 mergers and acquisitions