Chinese tech giant Tencent is exploring potential acquisition of South Korean game developer Nexon Dungeons and fighter planesBloomberg Report. Nexon invests heavily in Web 3 games, including the ambitious Maplestory series.
The company has reportedly contacted Nexon’s late founder Kim Jung-Ju, who controls a 44.4% stake in Nexon through holding company NXC Corp to discuss potential acquisitions.
The report noted that the discussions remain preliminary and there is no guarantee that they will reach an agreement, pointing to sources close to the matter.
If successful, Tencent will acquire a $16.6 billion market capitalization, a move that could rekindle its ambitions in global gaming mergers and acquisitions after the slowdown in China’s regulatory crackdown in 2020.
The deal could help Tencent’s long-term control of mass intellectual property and make it more determined in South Korea’s lucrative gaming market.
But any transaction will be complicated.
The Kim family inherited control after the founder died in 2022 and since then handed over the shares to the South Korean government to pay estate tax. The government has Unable to uninstall its shares.
Tencent had previously tried to buy Nexon in 2019, but negotiations collapsed. The new attempt was conducted at Tencent’s $1.3 billion investment in new Ubisoft units and a 10% stake in K-Pop Label SM Entertainment.
The Chinese tech giant is also expanding in the blockchain space, announcing earlier this year that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to develop a set of blockchain API services with Ankr.
Read more: S. Korean gaming giant Nexon uses polygons for popular Maplestory Universe
