Ye-Jin Jun 3 HOURS AGO
ENG
DoubleDown Interactive LLC, a South Korean social casino game publisher, has resumed the process to go public on the Nasdaq, tapping the red-hot US IPO market with improved earnings amid the social distancing trend.
The mobile and web-based game developer has recently submitted a revised Form F-1, or a statement required for a US listing, to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The revised statement updated its financial details filed in June 2020, reflecting a 44% year-on-year surge in net profit on a 32.6% increase in revenue last year, according to investment banking sources on Apr. 2.
DoubleDown Interactive plans to sell new 400,000 shares worth 117.4 billion won ($104 million) in June this year, based on which it will issue American depository receipts for overseas investors. Details about the issuance size and pricing will be determined after bookbuilding.
Radish, a US-based mobile fiction platform, was co-founded by CEO Seung Yoon Lee in 2016
South Korea s mobile giant Kakao Corp. is in negotiations to buy management rights of the US-based mobile fiction startup Radish Fiction for around 400 billion won ($354 million), amid intense competition for storytelling content among internet platforms, streaming service providers and even telecom giants.
Kakao Entertainment, a platform for web novels and comics, has been at the negotiation table with Radish on behalf of its parent group, according to investment banking sources on Apr. 4.
The Kakao unit had already secured a 12% stake in Radish after participating in the latter s 76 billion won funding in July 2020. In February this year, it further increased its ownership by acquiring an additional stake from other institutional investors.
SK Hynix s latest 176-layer 512 GB Triple-Level Cell (TLC) 4D NAND flash memory.
The reported bids to buy Japanese chipmaker Kioxia Holdings Corp. by Micron Technology Inc. and Western Digital Corp. is raising market chatter over the fate of the Kioxia stake held by South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc.
According to the investment banking industry on Apr. 2, SK Hynix doesn’t have any right to buy additional Kioxia shares ahead of other bidders if the Japanese company is up for sale, which means SK Hynix’s invested firm may end up in the hands of its competitors.
Back in 2018, SK Hynix, the semiconductor arm of SK Group, invested about 4 trillion won ($3.55 billion) in the Japanese chipmaker through a consortium led by US private equity firm Bain Capital. Of the investment, 1.3 trillion won was used to buy convertible bonds worth a 15% stake in Kioxia.
Geun-ho Im Mar 17, 2021 (Gmt+09:00)
ENG
E-book platform operator RIDI Corp. has successfully tapped into the US market, fueling anticipation over the possibility of it becoming South Korea s next unicorn startup.
Last November RIDI rolled out Manta, a subscription-based webtoon service, in North America. The service offers Korean webtoons translated into English, priced at $3.99 a month.
According to mobile data provider AppAnnie on Mar. 16, Manta is currently in eighth place in the book category on the iPhone App Store in the US.
“Manta has seen over 300,000 downloads in just three months from its release,” said a RIDI official.
As Manta gains traction in the US, there’s increased anticipation of a hike in the company s price tag as well. In 2019, RIDI secured 33 billion won in Series E funding with a valuation near 550 billion won ($487 million). Its valuation remained the same when it raised 20 billion won from the Korea Development Bank in March of las