Peter Jackson Sells Unity Weta’s Tech Assets Sold for $1.62 Billion

By Polly Rosie -

Peter Jackson Sells Unity Weta’s Tech Assets Sold for $1.62 Billion

Unity, a public trading tech firm entered a conclusive agreement in order to acquire Weta Digital by Peter Jackson for a sum of $1.625 billion. The transaction would be made in a stock and cash combination. Weta is a popular name as it was the VFX company that did the special effects for Avatar by James Cameron and Peter’s The Lord of the Rings. This deal is targeted to close by year-end.

Popular Movies That Weta Enhanced

Weta’s tech assets that are acquired by Unity will be renamed Weta Digital. However, Peter’s Weta VFX business will stay a separate entity under the name WetaFX. Recently, the company has also worked on movies like Eternals, Godzilla vs. Kong, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Jon Landau and Cameron are relying on Weta for their special effects of the sequel of Avatar.

Peter Believes in Unity

Peter Jackson Sells Unity Weta’s Tech Assets Sold for $1.62 Billion

Unity is well known in the VR entertainment field. They are the creators of the Unity game engine that is real-time and used in virtual production for a lot of entertainment content. Peter said in a statement that the tools Weta Digital use help create unlimited possibilities and make things in your imagination come alive as though they are real. He also said that both Weta Digital and Unity have the ability to carve pathways for artists and bring about real changes in the cinematic world.

Huge Transactions

Prem Akkaraju joined Weta Digital in 2020 but will stay WetaFX’s CEO. Joe Marks, the CTO of Weta, joined Unity and will oversee things at Weta Digital. As for the tech aspect, through this huge transaction Unity will acquire 275 engineers as well as proprietary technology with the inclusion of Weta’s very own tools and cloud service in addition to Gazebo and Manuka renderers, the physics-based simulation tool Loki used for smoke and water, Barbershop’s hair and fur system and the technology to capture facial.