Nexon’s founder, Kim Jung-ju intends to sell his 98.64% stake in the holding company (NXC Corporation) which is worth approximately $9 billion. Holding companies are fairly common in Asia where the larger conglomerates have smaller affiliates that operate across multiple industries and also have very close interlocking business relationships with each other (Chaebol’s in Korea and Keiretsu’s in Japan as examples). Most are also heavily family owned and also tend to have questionable relationships which often times leads to corruption.
One of the affiliates in this holding firm which the founder (and other members of his family) are divesting themselves from, is the game company Nexon (which now has its corporate headquarters in Tokyo). Several well known industry names have been noted as potential buyers including domestic (Korea) rivals like Kakao Corp and Netmarble Corp, Chinese behemoth Tencent Holdings Limited, and U.S. publisher Electronic Arts. While the Reuter’s article does not mention it, another major Chinese game company may also end up bidding for that stake; NetEase. There are concerns in South Korean regarding the potential for one of its largest game companies coming under foreign control.
