Line Corporation, an affiliate of the South Korean internet portal Naver, has agreed to merge with the parent company of Yahoo Japan.<br />This deal between South Korean and Japanese companies comes despite the deterioration in ties between the two countries.<br />Our Eum Ji-young has more.<br />The merger was announced Monday by Line's parent company Naver... and Yahoo Japan's operating company Z Holdings, a subsidiary of SoftBank.<br />Naver currently owns 73 percent of Line Corporation and SoftBank has a 45-percent stake in Z Holdings.<br />Under the merger, Naver and Softbank will each take a 50-percent stake in a new company that will operate Line as a joint venture in turn running both Line Messenger and Yahoo Japan.<br />To proceed with the deal, Naver and SoftBank are planning to publicly purchase all outstanding Line shares and sign the formal agreement next month.<br />Line is one of the most popular messaging apps in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand.<br />In Japan, it's used by more than 80 million people, which is far more than the number of Japanese users of other services like Instagram and Facebook.<br />Yahoo Japan is the country's second largest internet portal with roughly 50 million users. It competes with Google, and in other services like e-commerce, its competitors include giants Alibaba and Rakuten.<br />If signed, the merger would create Japan's biggest internet platform, providing a range of services from messenger, search and e-commerce to financial services... with over 100 million users.<br />Through the merger, the two companies expect to generate synergy, accelerate their growth in artificial intelligence and other areas... to strengthen competitive advantage among global platforms.<br />Eum Ji-young Arirang News.<br />
