SK Planet, owned by South Korea’s largest telecom carrier SK Telecom, said Thursday that it will sell off its 15 percent stake in Loen Entertainment, the operator of MelOn, Korea’s top music-streaming, to the new owner Kakao.

The shares were valued at 368 billion won ($302 million).


The company said that the decision was made during a directors’ meeting in the day as part of its business restructuring that has continued since last year to pour more resources into platform and app market businesses.

Last week, Internet giant Kakao announced it would acquire a combined 76.4 percent shares in Loen worth 1.87 trillion won, including 61.4 percent owned by Star Investment Holdings and 15 percent owned by SK Planet.

According to the contract conditions among the companies, the Leon shares were priced at 97,000 won per share.

With the planned acquisition, Kakao, best known for its immensely popular mobile messenger KakaoTalk, aims to become a major force in the nation’s soaring entertainment industry taking advantage of the K-pop sensation across Asia.

MelOn currently controls about 50 percent of the market with roughly 28 million subscribers, including about 3.6 million paid users. Kakao’s acquisition is expected to further increase its dominance in the music streaming market.

In a separate regulatory filing on Thursday, Kakao said it would issue new shares worth about 754.3 billion won to secure cash for the acquisition.

“With the acquisition, Kakao, seeking to restore profits, has secured a new cash cow to restore profits. But it is still doubtful about business synergies with its mobile-based services,” said Lee Dong-ryun, an analyst at KB Investment and Securities.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)