Line Corporation was founded on September 4, 2000, as
Hangame Japan as a part of
Hangame, a South Korean game company owned by
NHN at the time. In August 2003, the company was renamed to
NHN Japan. In 2007 Naver established another Japanese subsidiary
Naver Japan, which managed the Naver search engine in Japan before its demise. Naver Japan acquired
Livedoor in 2010. In 2012, Naver merged the three entities (NHN Japan, Naver Japan, Livedoor) into a new subsidiary known as
NHN Japan. On April 1, 2013, the company changed its name and traded as
Line Corporation. Later that same year, NHN split into two companies,
Naver Corporation and
NHN Entertainment Corporation and the latter created a new
NHN Japan Corporation subsidiary. In July 2016, Line Corporation held
IPOs on both the
New York Stock Exchange and the
Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Merger with Yahoo Japan In 2019, in preparation for the merger with
Yahoo Japan, Line Corporation (the original entity) was reorganized into a holding company and established as Line Split Preparation Corporation, and in 2021, it changed its company name to Line Corporation (2nd generation) by taking over the business from the original entity. At this time, the original entity changed its name to A Holdings Corporation. In late December 2020, Line delisted from both the New York Stock Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange, in advance of its absorption-type merger agreement with Z Holdings. In March 2021, Line Corporation merged with
Yahoo Japan, which had been operated by
Z Holdings, a
SoftBank Group subsidiary. Under the new structure,
Naver Corporation (Line's former parent company) and SoftBank Corporation (the wireless carrier unit of SoftBank Group) each held 50% stakes in a new company named A Holdings Corporation, which held a majority stake in Z Holdings, which will operate Line and Yahoo Japan. Upon integrating the two businesses and creating further platforms, the merged company aimed to compete with the U.S. tech giants Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple and the Chinese tech giants
Baidu,
Alibaba, and
Tencent,
Merger into LY Corporation On February 2, 2023, Z Holdings announced its intention to merge with its subsidiaries, Line and Yahoo Japan, during the fiscal year 2023. On October 1 of the same year, Yahoo, Z Entertainment, and Z Data merged into Z Holdings and changed their name to
LY Corporation. Line Corporation transferred its assets, rights, and businesses to LY Corporation through absorption-type split except for certain overseas stocks, and changed its name to the current one. It is expected to become a holding company managing overseas subsidiaries' stocks and other assets through business reorganization. ==References==