{"id":31716,"date":"2025-06-13T12:02:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T12:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=31716"},"modified":"2025-06-13T12:02:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T12:02:11","slug":"tencent-is-looking-to-buy-nexon-the-creator-of-web-3-gaming-franchise-maplestory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=31716","title":{"rendered":"Tencent Is Looking to Buy Nexon, the Creator of Web 3 Gaming Franchise MapleStory"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Chinese tech giant Tencent is exploring a potential acquisition of Nexon, the South Korean game developer behind the hit title <em>Dungeon &amp; Fighter<\/em>, Bloomberg <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2025-06-12\/tencent-said-to-study-deal-for-15-billion-game-developer-nexon?sref=3REHEaVI\">reports<\/a>. Nexon is heavily invested in Web 3 gaming, including the ambitious MapleStory franchise.<\/p>\n<p>The firm has reportedly approached the family of Nexon\u2019s late founder Kim Jung-ju, who controls a 44.4% stake in Nexon via holding company NXC Corp, to discuss a potential acquisition.<\/p>\n<p>Discussions are still preliminary, and there\u2019s no guarantee they will result in a deal, the report states, citing sources close to the matter.<\/p>\n<p>If successful, Tencent would be acquiring a company with a $16.6 billion market capitalization, a move that could reignite its ambitions in global gaming M&amp;A after a slowdown sparked by Chinese regulatory crackdowns in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The deal could help Tencent secure long-term control over popular intellectual property and give it a firmer foothold in South Korea\u2019s lucrative gaming market.<\/p>\n<p>But any deal would be complicated.<\/p>\n<p>The Kim family inherited control after the founder\u2019s death in 2022 and has since handed shares to the Korean government to cover inheritance taxes. The government has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kedglobal.com\/korean-games\/newsView\/ked202312290013\">unable to offload its stake.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tencent previously tried to buy Nexon in 2019, but talks collapsed over pricing. This new attempt follows Tencent\u2019s $1.3 billion investment in a new Ubisoft unit and a 10% stake in K-pop label SM Entertainment.<\/p>\n<p>The Chinese tech giant is also expanding in the blockchain space, announcing earlier this year that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop a suite of blockchain API services <a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/business\/2023\/02\/22\/defi-protocol-ankrs-token-surged-73-on-microsoft-and-tencent-partnerships\">with Ankr.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Read more:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.coindesk.com\/web3\/2023\/03\/22\/s-korean-gaming-giant-nexon-to-use-polygon-for-popular-maplestory-universe\"> S. Korean Gaming Giant Nexon to Use Polygon for Popular MapleStory Universe<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chinese tech giant Tencent is exploring a potential acquisition of Nexon, the South Korean game developer behind the hit title Dungeon &amp; Fighter, Bloomberg reports. Nexon is heavily invested in Web 3 gaming, including the ambitious MapleStory franchise. The firm has reportedly approached the family of Nexon\u2019s late founder Kim Jung-ju, who controls a 44.4% [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-31716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}