News On Japan

LINE Yahoo Faces Challenges in Changing Capital Ties with NAVER Over Data Leak

TOKYO, Jul 03 (News On Japan) - In response to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ demand to reassess its capital relationship with South Korean companies due to the recent data leak issue, LINE Yahoo expressed on the 1st of July that "short-term capital movement is difficult."

The data leak incident, which involved over 500,000 users' information, was traced back to the South Korean IT giant NAVER. NAVER, together with SoftBank, holds 50% of the shares of LINE Yahoo's parent company.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications pointed out insufficient management and supervision of outsourced operations due to the capital control by South Korean firms. It has called for measures including a review of capital relations. However, in its submitted report, LINE Yahoo stated that it recognizes the challenges associated with short-term capital movement.

On the other hand, LINE Yahoo announced that it will terminate its outsourcing of domestic service development and operations to NAVER by December next year, in principle.

Furthermore, the planned separation of systems from NAVER, initially scheduled for completion by December of the following year, will be expedited and is now expected to be completed by March.

Source: TBS

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