Yahoo! Japan And Line Confirm Merger

Z Holdings Corporation YAHOY, better known by its former name Yahoo! Japan, and Line Corporation LN announced on Monday they reached an agreement on their merger.

What Happened

The internet services provider Yahoo! Japan and messaging and mobile payments company Line will merge to form Z Holdings, the two companies said in a joint statement.

Z Holdings would be controlled by a 50/50 venture – Yahoo! Japan’s parent company SoftBank Group Corporation SFTBY, and Line’s parent company Naver Corporation NHNCF, the statement said.

SoftBank and Naver will purchase any outstanding shares in Line that not already owned by Naver at $47.79 per share.

The newly-formed company will have a combined market value of more than $30 billion, based on individual stock values of Yahoo! Japan and Line, as of today.

Yahoo! Japan and Line saw their shares surge unprecedentedly last week after the merger news.

What’s Next

The four companies involved in the deal are planning to finalize the agreement into a legal contract by the end of next month. The merger is expected to happen by October 2020.

Line closed 4.94% lower at $48.13 at the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. Its shares were up 2.18% on the Tokyo Stock Exchange following merger news on Monday, as of press time.

Yahoo! Japan closed 6.27% lower at $7.7 in the OTC market on Friday. Its shares were up 2.64% in Tokyo at press time.

Softbank closed 0.69% lower at $19.42 in the OTC market on Friday. Its shares were up 1.85% in Tokyo.

Naver’s shares traded 1.15% higher at $150.86 at the Korea Exchange as of press time.