According to sources, the huge MMO company Nexon from South Korea is up for sale. Potential buyers include Electronic Arts (FIFA, Battlefield), Kakao (Black Desert), and Chinese giant Tencent (LoL). The deal is estimated to be around 9 billion US dollars.
In 2012, there were rumors that the Korean giant Nexon might buy Electronic Arts (via golem). Now, there are opposite rumors: Nexon is allegedly up for sale and Electronic Arts is one of the few companies that might be interested in purchasing.
It’s about almost 9 billion US dollars
New rumors say: According to Reuters, Nexon founder Kin Jung-ju plans to sell his shares in the company. Reuters refers to the report of a Korean business magazine.
Kim Jung-ju’s shares, along with those of his wife and his personal company, are said to amount to 98.64% of Nexon and be worth approximately 8.9 billion dollars. With such a high sum, the pool of potential buyers is thin.
The Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley have been entrusted with the execution of the deal.
Potential buyers include:
- Kakao Corp, the Korean publisher behind Black Desert
- Netmarble, the Korean mobile gaming giant behind games like Lineage 2 Revolution
- Tencent, the Chinese giant, which owns Riot (League of Legends) and has a 40% stake in Epic (Fortnite)
- and of course Electronic Arts (FIFA, Battlefield)
These are the 4 buyers brought up by the Korean daily newspaper, citing “industry sources”.
Another possible buyer could be NetEase, a Chinese publisher with a lot of money.
According to MMOCulture, the rumor is causing a stir in Korea. There are concerns that the largest Korean publisher could fall into the hands of foreign companies.
Why is he allegedly selling everything? Allegedly, Kim Jung-ju is tired and exhausted from increasing regulations and a lawsuit he faced for allegedly bribing a prosecutor (via Kotaku.) However, he has since been acquitted of the charges.
There are reports that Kim Jung-ju had already announced in 2018 that he did not want to pass the company Nexon on to his children (via Investor).
Nexon has not yet made an official statement regarding the rumor. It is said that they are preparing a public announcement, which may still take a few days.
This is the company in question: Nexon is a South Korean-Japanese publisher of video games. The company was founded in 1994 in Seoul by Kim Jung-ju (now 50) and Jake Song. However, Song left the company quickly, later developing the MMORPG Lineage for NCSoft and then ArcheAge.
Some of the most well-known games published by Nexon include:
- MapleStory and MapleStory 2 – MMORPGs with a cuddly look
- Dungeon Fighter Online – it regularly ranks among the top-grossing PC games in the world
- Vindictus
- Riders of Icarus
- FIFA Online (in cooperation with EA) – this is basically the Asia version of FIFA
Nexon publishes over 80 titles in 190 countries and has more than 5500 employees.
We last heard from Nexon in the West when they released and later discontinued “Lawbreakers” after the shooter flopped badly.
A few months ago, the Koreans from Pearl Abyss acquired the Icelandic development studio CCP. Here, a shift towards mobile was indicated:
