Unity Software shares surge after cryptic post by 'Roaring Kitty'

Unity Software

02/01/2025 17:36

Jan 2 (Reuters) - Unity Software's  U.N  shares rose nearly 10% on Thursday as a cryptic
post by "Roaring Kitty" on social media platform X sparked enthusiasm, following a challenging
year for the videogame software maker.
    Keith Gill, popularly known among traders as "Roaring Kitty," shot to fame during "the meme
stock frenzy" that gripped Wall Street in 2021 and triggered an eye-popping rally in GameStop's
 GME.N  shares.
    Gill posted a small clip about late musician Rick James on X, who featured in a song named
"Unity," triggering interest in the stock.
    The company behind the Unity Engine software, a platform used to create video games, is set
to add more than $700 million to its market valuation, if gains hold. Its shares rose as high as
$26 on the first trading day of 2025.
    "The leader of the meme stock post on social media, whether it's Reddit or X, you're
certainly going (to) see that reaction by that small army of meme stock players — that's what
we're seeing again today," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth.
    Unity's shares fell about 45% in 2024, as the company introduced a pricing policy "runtime
fee" in 2023, which it had to scrap the next year after facing severe backlash from the
videogame developer community.
    Millions of game creators rely on its software toolkit each month, including the maker of
the popular "Pokemon Go," "Beat Saber" and "Hearthstone" games.
    Last year, the company announced layoffs of about 25% of its workforce, following 8% of job
cuts in 2023, in a bid to focus on profitability.
    Gill, who disclosed a 6.6% stake in pet products retailer Chewy  CHWY.N , had dissolved his
entire stake last year. In June 2024 GameStop's stock tanked after Gill's livestream failed to
spark investor enthusiasm.
    "You would think people would have learned by now that playing these silly reindeer games
end in tears ... it's not the way to invest," said Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital
LLC.
  

 (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh, Pranav Kashyap and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan
Barona)
 ((Jaspreet.Singh@thomsonreuters.com; https://twitter.com/i_jass))