By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
NHN, Korea's top Internet portal and Web search service, said Monday it has agreed to buy Japan's Internet Portal Livedoor 68 million in a move to get a bigger share of the lucrative Japanese Internet market.
The Korean operator will pay 100 billion won for a controlling stake in Livedoor, unnamed NHN executives said.
An NHN spokesman officially declined to disclose the exact deal amount, citing the sensitivity of the issue.
"The deal will be closed by mid-May between NHN's Japanese unit ― NHN Japan and LDH, formerly Livedoor Holdings," the official added.
Livedoor is currently operating a portal drawing 30 million users per month. It was delisted in 2006 in Japan in the wake of an accounting scandal.
NHN, which runs the Hangame online game portal in Japan, is dominating Web search traffic in Korea ― the world's most wired country ― and competing with Yahoo and Google in the sector.
The Korean Internet operator has long been expected to buy Livedoor as it is eager to expand its footstep in Japan that it re-entered last year after leaving in 2005.
"The deal will help NHN boost its brand recognition in Japan. But it seems too early to say that the acquisition will have an imminent effect of boosting NHN Japan's credibility," Lee Chang-yong, an analyst at Tongyang Securities said.