Investors panic over KineMaster deal collapse koreatimes.co.kr - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from koreatimes.co.kr Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Posted : 2021-02-17 15:49
Updated : 2021-02-17 21:20
US investment bank faces concerns over conflict of interest
By Park Jae-hyuk
Morgan Stanley has come under scrutiny recently among local observers of the domestic M&A market, since it was reportedly selected as the underwriter for the sales of both Yogiyo and eBay Korea.
Some insiders here have raised concerns over a possible conflict of interest, given the two companies share a pool of potential buyers. Those mentioned as such are foreign and domestic private equity firms (PEFs), conventional retailers and IT firms here.
Attention is therefore focusing on whether the U.S. investment bank will handle both buyout deals successfully or whether it will focus on only one of them.
KineMaster investors betting on Hyperconnect deal
Posted : 2021-02-15 16:42
By Park Jae-hyuk
Expectations of a takeover of KineMaster by a foreign tech giant are growing further, after Hyperconnect, the unlisted Korean startup that operates the Azar video chat app, was sold last week for $1.7 billion to the Nasdaq-listed Match Group, which is well known for its dating-app Tinder.
Both KineMaster and Hyperconnect have long been regarded as the next Korean mobile app developers likely to hit the jackpot overseas, as Naver s Japanese subsidiary LINE did in the Asian market with its mobile messenger app.
The successful Hyperconnect deal has therefore led more domestic investors to expect one of the providers of global social media platforms, such as TikTok, Facebook and YouTube, to buy the Kosdaq-listed mobile video editor app operator, whose major shareholders have sought to sell their controlling stakes since late last year.