Nexon Pays $685 Million for Stake in South Korean Game Company

Nexon, a Seoul-based game company that recently raised $1.2 billion in an IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, has bought a $685 million stake in NCsoft, a South Korean maker of online games. Nexon is known for such free-to-play games as MapleStory, while NCsoft develops massively multiplayer online game titles, including Lineage and Guild Wars. Nexon paid KRW 250,000 in cash for each share, for a total acquisition cost of KRW 804,522,750,000. Nexon is now NCsoft’s largest shareholder, with a 14.7 percent ownership stake.