Kakao Entertainment is consolidating its subsidiaries to enhance its story intellectual property (IP) business competitiveness.
On August 14, Kakao Entertainment announced the merger of its subsidiaries Samyang C&C, InTime, and Pilyeon Management. According to the company, the boards of directors for each subsidiary approved the merger on August 12, with plans to complete the process by the end of the year.
All three companies are wholly owned subsidiaries of Kakao Entertainment. The merged entity will keep the name 'Samyang C&C,' and Cha Seong-taek, the current CEO of Samyang C&C, will lead the new organization.
Kakao Entertainment's predecessor, KakaoPage, acquired a 49.97% stake in Samyang C&C in January 2018. Following additional acquisitions, it purchased the remaining 30% stake for 24 billion won in January 2021, making Samyang C&C a wholly owned subsidiary. In March of the same year, KakaoPage merged with KakaoM and rebranded as Kakao Entertainment.
The merger aims to strengthen the competitiveness of story IP and improve operational efficiency. The companies plan to integrate their expertise in webtoon and web novel planning and production, enhancing their capabilities in the novel-comic genre that bridges web novels and webtoons.
Kakao Entertainment is focusing on developing high-quality IP across various genres, including romance, fantasy, and martial arts, to secure mega IPs with strong fan bases. This will further strengthen its story IP pipeline.
Samyang C&C, InTime, and Pilyeon Management are content providers specializing in webtoons and web novels. They have expertise in planning and producing story IP across a wide range of genres, including romance fantasy and traditional martial arts, as well as expanding web novels into webtoons. They are particularly strong in diversifying IP into secondary creations such as dramas and animations.
These three companies have built their competitiveness based on their comprehensive know-how in the IP business, from discovering new authors to planning and producing webtoon and web novel works, as well as publishing, merchandise, and expanding into secondary creations like dramas and animations.
Samyang C&C's fantasy work 'The Spirit King Elquiness' is recognized as a notable novel-comic IP that has expanded from web novel to webtoon. The combined views of webtoons and web novels on KakaoPage and KakaoWebtoon have reached a total of 340 million. It is also available on Piccoma, operated by KakaoPiccoma in Japan.
A Kakao Entertainment representative stated, “Through the merger of these three companies, we will focus on planning and discovering competitive IP across various genres, solidifying our story business and strengthening our global competitive IP pipeline.”
* This article has been translated by AI.
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