Two of Korea’s strongest players in the mobile space, Daum and Kakao, have officially merged today. According to Yonhap News Agency, the new entity is valued at close to a massive sum of 10 trillion won (US$9.45 billion).
Despite Kakao’s market value nearly quadrupling Daum’s, the latter will be taking over former. The report adds that Kakao will be getting a backdoor listing through the merger on KOSDAQ, instead of going public the following year as they initially planned.
The newly merged firm, which will be called Daum-Kakao, will certainly give Korea’s other unicorn Naver a run for its money. Naver continues to enjoy local dominance as the number one search engine in Korea, though its Line messenger service, which operates from its subsidiary in Japan, has a wider audience beyond their borders rather than within.
Interestingly, Naver had recently held off on an IPO for Line, believing that they can command a better valuation by further building its revenue and profit, according to Naver’s chief financial officer. If they had gone ahead with the IPO, the resulting valuation would certainly have exceeded US$10 billion.
See: KakaoTalk reveals it has 140 million users, made $203 million in revenue last year
Daum and Kakao merge, massive valuation puts them head-to-head with Naver-Line
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