Hoban kakao bear
Scope
Date
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Pre-IPOs
Kakao Entertainment’s fundraising plan hits roadblock
Kakao Entertainment Corp., a unit of South Korea’s mobile platform giant Kakao Corp., is struggling to raise money as surging inflation and ri...
May 27, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Webtoons
Kakao to merge US webtoon, web novel platforms
South Korea’s Kakao Entertainment Co. is set to merge Tapas Media Inc. and Radish Fiction Inc., its webtoon and mobile novel platforms in Nort...
May 19, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Future mobility
LG’s telecommunication unit joins UAM race in Korea
LG Group’s telecommunication unit joined the race for South Korea’s urban air mobility (UAM) to secure a future growth engine in coopera...
May 11, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Earnings
Kakao CEO vows messenger app reform as Q1 misses forecasts
South Korea’s leading online platform operator Kakao Corp. plans to drastically change the way KakaoTalk, the country’s top mobile messe...
May 04, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Webtoons
Kakao to launch webtoon platform in Indonesia for SE Asia
Kakao Entertainment Co. will launch a webtoon platform in Indonesia, the most populous country in Southeast Asia, to expand the business in the regi...
Apr 27, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Korean games
Kakao Games invests $15 mn in Playable Worlds for global expansion
Kakao Games Corp., a game publishing unit of Korea’s web service giant Kakao Corp., has invested $15 million in US game studio Playable Worlds...
Apr 22, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Upcoming IPOs
One Store refiles IPO application, changing peer group list
One Store Co., investment firm SK Square Co.'s homegrown app store, is gearing up for an initial public offering to be held in May. The local app st...
Apr 18, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Entertainment
Kakao Entertainment sets up content ecosystem with M&As
Kakao Entertainment Corp., a unit of South Korea’s top mobile messenger app operator, has established its own content ecosystem including crea...
Apr 14, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Tech, Media & Telecom
Naver, Kakao shares to fall further on sluggish outlook
Shares of Naver Corp. and Kakao Corp. are expected to decline further after South Korea’s top two platform giants already lost 20 trillion won...
Apr 12, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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IPOs
Kakao's game unit behind Odin valued at $2.7 bn before IPO
Lionheart Studio Corp., the firm behind South Korea’s popular mobile game Odin, is preparing to go public as early as this year, with its ente...
Apr 12, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Korean games
Netmarble, NCSoft, Kakao, DoubleUGames on top publisher list
South Korea’s major tech companies such as Netmarble Corp., NCSoft Corp., Kakao Corp. and DoubleUGames were selected among the world’s m...
Apr 12, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Webtoons
South Korean comics platforms dominate global top 10
Six manhwa platforms operated by South Korea’s tech juggernauts rank among the top 10 paid digital comics platforms worldwide. Manhwa is ...
Apr 12, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Mergers & Acquisitions
Kakao Piccoma acquires Japan’s cryptocurrency exchange SEBC
Kakao Corp., South Korea’s top mobile messenger app operator, has acquired a controlling stake in Sakura Exchange BitCoin (SEBC), a Japanese c...
Apr 05, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Mergers & Acquisitions
Korean activist fund KCIG to sell Hanjin KAL stake to local builder
South Korea’s activist fund Korea Corporate Governance Improvement Fund (KCGI) has decided to sell its stake in Hanjin KAL, the holding compan...
Mar 28, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Mergers & Acquisitions
Kakao hits snag in $815 mn SM Entertainment takeover plan
Kakao Entertainment Corp. has hit a snag in its talks to buy a controlling stake in SM Entertainment Co., according to those familiar with the neg...
Mar 28, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Entertainment
Europe emerges as battleground for webtoon dominance
South Korea’s tech behemoths Naver Corp. and Kakao Corp. are intensifying competition over who will dominate the global webtoon market. ...
Mar 21, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Korean startups
Service robot maker Bear Robotics raises $81 mn in Series B
South Korea’s robotics startup Bear Robotics Inc. announced Wednesday it raised $81 million in Series B funding from venture capital heavywe...
Mar 16, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Tech, Media & Telecom
Billionaire Kakao chairman Brian Kim resigns
Kakao Corp. founder and chairman Brian Kim said on Monday that he will step down from the tech giant’s board of directors, following a series ...
Mar 14, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Executive reshuffles
Billionaire Kakao chairman Brian Kim resigns
Kakao Corp. founder and chairman Brian Kim said on Monday that he will step down from the board of directors, following a series of scandals that ro...
Mar 14, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Mergers & Acquisitions
Kakao closes in on $800 mn deal to buy SM Entertainment stake
Kakao Entertainment Corp., a unit of South Korea's top mobile messenger app, is in the final stages of talks to buy a controlling stake in SM Entert...
Mar 11, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Content platforms
Kakao to unveil YouTube-like manga platform in Japan
Kakao Corp., the No. 1 digital comics platform in Japan, will expand deeper into the neighboring country's comics market by launching a platform whe...
Mar 03, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Metaverse
Kakao’s incoming CEO to launch two metaverse platforms
‘Beyond Korea’ is South Korean tech juggernaut Kakao Corp.’s new vision for the future. Kakao’s new CEO nominee Namkoon...
Feb 25, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Korean games
NCSoft's 2021 profit halves on labor, marketing costs
South Korea's NCSoft Corp., the publisher of the popular mobile game Lineage series, on Tuesday reported a worse-than-expected operating profit in 2...
Feb 15, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Korean stock market
Gaming stocks tumble after disappointing Q4 results
Shares in South Korean gaming companies have been on a losing run since the start of the year, giving up about half of the gains they enjoyed late l...
Feb 11, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Earnings
Kakao slips below Naver in Q4 revenue
South Korea’s tech giant Kakao Corp. reported 4Q revenue of 1.78 trillion won ($1.5 billion) in 2021, a 45% jump on-year. The figure is slight...
Feb 11, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Entertainment
Kakao to launch webtoon service Piccoma in France
Kakao Corp. announced Sunday that it plans to launch the European version of its webtoon subscription service in either April or May of this year....
Feb 07, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Fraud scandals
Kakao names new CEO to salvage reputation hurt by stock options scandal
Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea’s top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, on Thursday announced a new chief executive nominee as the company ...
Jan 20, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Cryptocurrencies
WeMade under fire for massive clandestine WEMIX cryptocurrency sale
WeMade Co., a South Korean video game developer, has come under criticism for the massive unnoticed selling of its cryptocurrency WEMIX, allegedly i...
Jan 11, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Leadership & Management
Kakao co-CEO nominee resigns after stock option exercise
Alex Young-joon Ryu, a nominee for new co-CEO of South Korea's top mobile messenger app Kakao Corp., on Monday offered to step down, after his dispo...
Jan 10, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)
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Artificial Intelligence
IGIS invests in Kakao Enterprise for AI-embedded real estate
IGIS Asset Management Co. and its venture capital affiliate are slated to invest 10 billion won ($8.3 million) in Kakao Enterprise Corp., an artific...
Jan 05, 2022 (Gmt+09:00)