'The Lord of the Rings' director sells his visual effects studio for $1.6 billion
"The Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson is selling most of his visual effects studio Weta Digital to Unity, which makes development software for video games, for $1.6 billion.
The cash-and-stock deal will see the American platform acquire Weta Digital's "tools, pipeline, technology, and engineering talent," the companies said in a statement on Tuesday.
"This acquisition is designed to put Weta's incredibly exclusive and sophisticated visual effects tools into the hands of millions of creators and artists around the world," the statement said.
Weta Digital, which has six Academy Awards and six BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards to its name, has built characters and worlds for a wide variety of movies, including "Avatar," "Black Widow" and "Lord of the Rings."
Meanwhile, Unity is famous in the gaming world for its development software, which studios use to create hits like "Fall Guys," "Pokémon Go" and "Call of Duty: Mobile."
"Together, Unity and Weta Digital can create a pathway for any artist, from any industry, to be able to leverage these incredibly creative and powerful tools," Jackson said in the statement. "Offering aspiring creatives access to Weta Digital's technology will be nothing short of game changing and Unity is just the company to bring this vision to life."
Weta Digital's visual effects teams will continue to exist as a standalone entity known as WetaFX, under Jackson's majority ownership, the statement added.
The acquisition is expected to close during Unity's fourth quarter 2021.
The companies also said that together they intend to shape the future of the "metaverse" — a word that has become trendy in the technology world since Facebook said last month that the company would rebrand itself to focus on virtual reality and augmented reality.
《指环王》导演以 16 亿美元出售其视觉效果工作室
《指环王》导演彼得·杰克逊以 16 亿美元的价格将他的视觉效果工作室 Weta Digital 的大部分股权出售给了 Unity，后者为视频游戏开发软件。
两家公司在周二的一份声明中表示，这笔现金加股票交易将使这家美国平台收购 Weta Digital 的“工具、管道、技术和工程人才”。
声明说：“此次收购旨在将 Weta 令人难以置信的独特和复杂的视觉效果工具交到全球数百万创作者和艺术家的手中。”
Weta Digital 拥有六项奥斯卡奖和六项 BAFTA（英国电影电视艺术学院）奖项，为包括《阿凡达》、《黑寡妇》和《魔界之王》在内的各种电影打造了角色和世界和《指环王》。”
与此同时，Unity 以其开发软件而闻名于游戏界，工作室用它来制作“Fall Guys”、“Pokémon Go”和“Call of Duty: Mobile”等热门作品。
杰克逊在声明中说：“Unity 和 Weta Digital 可以一起为任何行业的任何艺术家创造一条能够利用这些令人难以置信的创意和强大工具的途径。” “为有抱负的创意人士提供 Weta Digital 技术的机会将改变游戏规则，而 Unity 正是将这一愿景变为现实的公司。”
Weta Digital 的视觉效果团队将继续作为一个名为 WetaFX 的独立实体存在，在 Jackson 的多数股权下。
此次收购预计将在 Unity 2021 年第四季度完成。
两家公司还表示，他们打算共同塑造“元宇宙”的未来——自从 Facebook 上个月表示该公司将重塑自己的品牌以专注于虚拟现实和增强现实以来，这个词在科技界变得流行起来。
