Line Yahoo CEO "Strongly Requests Share Sale to Naver"

Takeshi Idezawa, CEO of Line Yahoo, revealed that he has requested Naver to sell its shares in A Holdings, the parent company of Line Yahoo. Naver and SoftBank each hold 50% of the shares of A Holdings, the major shareholder of Line Yahoo.

On the 8th, during the 2023 earnings conference call, CEO Idezawa explained, "The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in Japan has raised the administrative guidance issue of whether it is possible to strongly demand consignment management matters while being under capital control by Naver," adding, "Based on a comprehensive judgment, we are strongly requesting the consignment party (Naver) to change the capital relationship." He also mentioned, "SoftBank and Naver are currently in discussions."

Earlier, through the earnings announcement, CEO Idezawa stated, "We will sequentially terminate the consignment with Naver," indicating that Line Yahoo plans to pursue technological independence. Although infrastructure management such as data center usage, network management, and authentication was entrusted to Naver through the consignment contract, they intend to gradually end this and manage it with their own technology.

Additionally, he announced plans to increase the number of outside directors to a majority and separate management from execution. Shin Jungho, CEO and Chief Product Officer (CPO) of Line, and Taya Taku, Director and Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), whose terms are ending, are expected to retire. However, they will continue to fulfill their roles as CPO and CSO.

Last November, Naver Cloud was infected with malware due to a cyberattack, resulting in a personal information leak at Line Yahoo, which shared some internal systems. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications conducted administrative guidance on March 5 and on the 16th of last month. In the administrative guidance, the Japanese government demanded Line Yahoo improve its management system, including a "review of the capital relationship with Naver."