Kakao Entertainment (CEO Lee Jin-soo) announced on the 19th that the merger of Tapas and Radish was passed through their respective boards of directors on the 18th.
The surviving corporation is Radish, which absorbs Tapas Media, and the merger ratio is set at 1:18 for Radish and Tapas. With the merger date set for August 1st, Tapas and Radish plan to go through detailed merger procedures, including deciding on a new merged company name. The CEO of the new merged corporation will be CEO Kim Chang-won.
Kakao Entertainment announced its ambition to create synergy and maximize global growth engines by combining the story IP capabilities accumulated by Tapas and Radish in North America.
The new merged entity encompasses three platforms, including Tapas, Radish, and Wuxia World, which Radish acquired last year. Even after the merger, the three services will operate independently, but there is a vision to create synergy.
Lee Jin-soo, CEO of Kakao Entertainment, said, “The merger of Tapas and Raddish will be a turning point that will lead the evolution of the North American storytelling industry beyond a simple combination of platforms.” He added, “Kakao Entertainment’s North American ‘triangular formation’ of Tapas, Radish, and Usia World “We will build a strong ‘IP pipeline’ by combining our unrivaled IP capabilities with Kakao Entertainment’s Korean IP, which has proven its strong power globally, and through this, we will create continuous IP success stories,” he said.
In addition, “We expect that this merger will serve as a momentum to accelerate the growth of our North American business, and through this, we will spur the goal of ‘tripling global transaction volume within 3 years and achieving 500 billion won in North American transaction volume’.” He said.
Kim Chang-won, CEO of the merged corporation, said, “In the hyper-competitive global entertainment market, this merger will be the foundation for gaining overwhelming capabilities and competitiveness as a story IP business operator.” “We will continue to innovate in content and become the most loved brand leader among North American readers with IP that encompasses all genres.”
Through a merger that blurs the boundaries between webtoon platforms and web novel platforms, Kakao Entertainment said it will operate the ‘novel-comics system’ more aggressively in the North American market. Noble Comics, which produces webtoons from popular web novels such as ‘Only I Level Up’, ‘Tempal’, and ‘In-house Confrontation’, is a system that Kakao Entertainment introduced for the first time in Korea, leading to the expansion of the work life cycle and maximization of creator profits.
The IPs that the merged corporation will introduce are expected to connect with the North American industry and lead to videos, games, animation, etc. Kakao Entertainment announced that it has begun preparations to discover hit IP cases in North America, such as the second ‘Itaewon Class’, ‘In-house Confrontation’, and ‘Amazing Rumors’. Additionally, the merged corporation will expand its original IP to various fields such as audio content, metaverse, and NFT.
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom
→ Go to ‘Asia Innovation Hub Pangyo Techno Valley 2022’ news