Nexon invests $874 million in Hasbro, Bandai Namco, Konami, and Sega Sammy

Nexon, the Tokyo-based maker of Maplestory and different on-line video games, has invested $874 million in Hasbro, Bandai Namco, Konami, and Sega Sammy.

Nexon mentioned it has made an unrealized acquire of $279 million on the long-term investments, but it surely has no intention of buying the businesses or making activist shareholder proposals with the investments.

Nexon made different investments as nicely, however the quantities didn’t meet the corporate’s threshold for disclosure.

In 2020, Nexon’s board licensed as much as $1.5 billion for funding in leisure firms that show the flexibility to develop and maintain sturdy globally acknowledged mental property.

These are long-term pleasant investments with no intention of acquisition or activism. As of the tip of 2020, Nexon accomplished investments totaling ¥92.4 billion ($874 million) which represents 58{69439eabc38bbe67fb47fc503d1b0f790fcef507f9cafca8a4ef4fbfe163a7c5} of the licensed quantity.

“We imagine firms with sturdy, well-managed international IP are sometimes missed and undervalued in a market that’s narrowly centered on introductions of recent IP,” mentioned CEO Owen Mahoney, in an announcement. “These investments mirror our respect for administration groups that create and develop international properties over a interval of years and a long time. We imagine that every has potential to capitalize on the secular shift from linear codecs to interactive leisure.”

Mahoney added, “These investments symbolize use of our money in a low-interest surroundings and we’re extraordinarily happy with the preliminary outcomes. Whereas leveraging partnerships was not a consideration in our funding choices, we’re happy with the dialogue that has ensued with some firms.”

Nexon has $4.8 billion in money, and shareholders have questioned how the corporate would make investments that cash. Nexon has began a share buyback program, but it surely retains producing extra cash by way of video games reminiscent of Maplestory and Dungeon Fighter, which have maintained stable development by way of a long time. Nexon had $2.7 billion in revenues in 2020.