Line Corporation
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Line Corporation's headquarters | |
Native name | Line |
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Formerly |
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Company type | Subsidiary |
Industry | Internet and Telecommunications |
Predecessor | NHN Japan |
Founded | September 4, 2000Tokyo, Japan | , in
Defunct | October 1, 2023 |
Fate | Merged with Z Holdings and Yahoo! Japan |
Successor | LY Corporation |
Headquarters | , Japan |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Takeshi Idezawa, CEO |
Products | Line, livedoor |
Services | Line App, Line Manga, Line Play, Line Taxi |
Revenue | ¥166.4B "$1.5B USD" (2020) |
Total assets | ¥541.4B "$5B USD"(2020) |
Total equity | ¥147.7B "$1.4B USD" (2020) |
Number of employees | 2,268 |
Parent | Z Holdings (65.3%) |
Subsidiaries | Line Plus Corporation Line Business Partners Corporation DataHotel Co., Ltd. Line Digital Frontier Line Vietnam Line Company Thailand |
Website | www |
Line Corporation (Line
The company operates various internet services, including the communication app Line, as well as Line Music, and Line Manga, and Line Pay.
In 2019, during the merger with Yahoo, Line Corporation (the original entity) was reorganized into a holding company and established as Line Split Preparation Corporation, and in 2021, it changed its company name to Line Corporation (2nd generation) by taking over the business from the original entity. At this time, the original entity changed its name to A Holdings Corporation.
On February 2, 2023, it was announced that Z Holdings and Yahoo would merge during the fiscal year 2023.[2] On October 1 of the same year, Yahoo, Z Entertainment, and Z Data merged into Z Holdings and changed their name to "Line Yahoo Corporation."[3][4] Line Corporation transferred its assets, rights, and businesses to Line Yahoo Corporation through absorption-type split except for certain overseas stocks, and changed its name to the current one.[5] It is expected to become a holding company managing overseas subsidiaries' stocks and other assets through business reorganization.
History[edit]
Line Corporation was founded on September 4, 2000, as Hangame Japan as a part of Hangame, a South Korean game company owned by NHN at the time. In August 2003, the company was renamed to NHN Japan.
In 2007 Naver established another Japanese subsidiary Naver Japan, which managed the Naver search engine in Japan before its demise. Naver Japan acquired Livedoor in 2010.
In 2012, Naver merged the three entities (NHN Japan, Naver Japan, Livedoor) into a new subsidiary known as NHN Japan.[6]
On April 1, 2013, the company changed its name and traded as Line Corporation.[7] Later that same year, NHN split into two companies, Naver Corporation and NHN Entertainment Corporation and the latter created a new NHN Japan Corporation subsidiary.[8]
In July 2016, Line Corporation held IPOs on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange.[9]
In late December 2020, Line delisted from both the New York Stock Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange,[10] in advance of its absorption-type merger agreement with Z Holdings.[11]
In March 2021 Line Corporation merged with Yahoo Japan, which has been operated by Z Holdings, a SoftBank Group subsidiary.[12] Under the new structure, Naver Corporation (Line's former parent company) and SoftBank Corp. (the wireless carrier unit of SoftBank Group) each hold 50 percent stakes in a new company named A Holdings Corp., which holds a majority stake in Z Holdings, which will operate Line and Yahoo Japan.[12][13][14] Upon integrating the two businesses and creating further platforms, the merged company aims to compete with the U.S. tech giants Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple and the Chinese tech giants Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent,[13] as well as the Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten.[12] The merger also gives Z Holdings three additional Asian markets where Line is popular: Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia.[12]
In April 2021, Line Corporation launched Line Bank, a commercial bank headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan.[15][16][17]
In February 2023, Z Holdings announced its intention to merge its subsidiaries, Line and Yahoo Japan.[18] In April, it was announced that the merger would be implemented on October 1, along with a simultaneous name change to LY Corporation.[19]
References[edit]
- ^ ハンゲームジャパン
- ^ "Line とヤフー、
親会社 のZホールディングスと3社 で合併 へ".読売新聞 . 2023-02-02. Retrieved 2023-02-02. - ^ ヤフー
株式会社 と Line株式会社 の利用 規約 統合 のご案内 - ^ [1][2][3]
- ^ グループ
内 再編 (子会社 の現物 配当 による孫 会社 の異動 ならびに完全 子会社 との吸収 合併 および吸収 分割 )および子会社 の商号 変更 に関 する決定 のお知 らせ - ^ "Milestones : Company : Naver". www.navercorp.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-22.
- ^ "Line Corporation". Line Corporation.
- ^ "Korean Internet Company NHN Splits To Battle Kakao (Updated)". Forbes. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
- ^ Fiegerman, Seth (13 July 2016). "Line goes public: what you need to know about the year's biggest tech IPO". CNN Business. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
- ^ "Announcement Regarding the Delisting of the Common Shares of Line Corporation from the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Delisting of the American Depositary Shares from the New York Stock Exchange" (PDF). Line Corporation. 28 December 2020. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
- ^ "Form 6-K". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Line Corporation. December 2020. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
- ^ a b c d "Yahoo Japan operator, Line merge to take on foreign tech giants". Kyodo News. 1 March 2021. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
- ^ a b Masuda, Yoko (1 March 2021). "Yahoo Japan, Line integrate businesses to be major '3rd force'". The Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
- ^ Eun-Soo, Jin (1 March 2021). "Naver and SoftBank's A Holdings joint venture established". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
- ^ "Line Bank to trial this week, launch by next month". Archived from the original on 2021-06-06. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ^ "Internet-only Line Bank Commences Trial Operations in Taiwan". Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ^ "Japan's Line Banks on Fintech in Taiwan". Archived from the original on 2021-06-06. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
- ^
日経 ビジネス電子 版 . "Zホールディングスがヤフー・Line社 と合併 、なぜ「Line寄 り」人事 なのか".日経 ビジネス電子 版 (in Japanese). Retrieved 2023-07-10. - ^ "ZHD、
新 社名 は「Line ヤフー」 10月 にIDを連携 ".日本経済新聞 (in Japanese). 2023-04-28. Retrieved 2023-07-10.
External links[edit]
- Line Corporation homepage
- Line
- Naver Japan Archived 2017-06-25 at the Wayback Machine
- Livedoor
- Clova Cloud Virtual Assistant by Naver/Line
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Naver Corporation
- South Korean brands
- Internet in Japan
- Z Holdings
- Telecommunications companies based in Tokyo
- Internet search engines
- Companies formerly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange
- Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange
- Japanese companies established in 2000
- Telecommunications companies established in 2000
- 2016 initial public offerings
- 2021 mergers and acquisitions