SEOUL, KOREA - NHN Entertainment will acquire Korea Cyber Payment as a way to diversity its business portfolio away from games. On September 4, NHN Entertainment said in a regulatory filing that it would purchase 5.1 million shares of Korea Cyber Payment (30.15%) at the cost of 64.19 billion won.

 

An NHN Entertainment official said, "We decided to take over the electronic payment company as we plan to expand into the crossborder e-commerce business. Once the share purchase is completed, NHN Entertainment will become the largest shareholder of Korea Cyber Payment and take it under the company's corporation umbrella."

 

The company had earlier said when announcing its second-quarter financial results that it is investing in new businesses such as crossborder e-commerce in order to secure stable income streams other than the game business that is highly variable in performance.

 

Jeong Woo-jin, NHN Entertainment president, said, "Due to abrupt changes in the market environment and government regulations, we recorded disappointing results. By moving into the global market while diversifying our business portfolios into new areas, we will try to turn crisis into opportunity." The second-quarter sales revenue for the company was 119.8 billion won with operating loss of 7.3 billion won.