Line Corporation, an affiliate of the South Korean internet portal Naver, has agreed to merge with the parent company of Yahoo Japan.
This deal between South Korean and Japanese companies comes despite the deterioration in ties between the two countries.
Our Eum Ji-young has more.
The merger was announced Monday by Line's parent company Naver... and Yahoo Japan's operating company Z Holdings, a subsidiary of SoftBank.
Naver currently owns 73 percent of Line Corporation and SoftBank has a 45-percent stake in Z Holdings.
Under the merger, Naver and Softbank will each take a 50-percent stake in a new company that will operate Line as a joint venture in turn running both Line Messenger and Yahoo Japan.
To proceed with the deal, Naver and SoftBank are planning to publicly purchase all outstanding Line shares and sign the formal agreement next month.
Line is one of the most popular messaging apps in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand.
In Japan, it's used by more than 80 million people, which is far more than the number of Japanese users of other services like Instagram and Facebook.
Yahoo Japan is the country's second largest internet portal with roughly 50 million users. It competes with Google, and in other services like e-commerce, its competitors include giants Alibaba and Rakuten.
If signed, the merger would create Japan's biggest internet platform, providing a range of services from messenger, search and e-commerce to financial services... with over 100 million users.
Through the merger, the two companies expect to generate synergy, accelerate their growth in artificial intelligence and other areas... to strengthen competitive advantage among global platforms.
Eum Ji-young Arirang News.