Executives of Line, a messaging affiliate of Naver, celebrate the unit’s listing in New York on July 14, 2016. The stock was delisted last December, following the creation of a holdings unit between Naver and SoftBank. [LINE]
Naver first marched into Japan with a localized version of its portal in 2000, long before its Line instant messenger took off.
The search engine service flopped, and its quiet retreat in 2013 went almost unnoticed. Google and Yahoo squeezed them out of the market.
Now it’s back, and with 50 percent of A Holdings, a joint venture that Naver established with SoftBank in March that controls Yahoo Japan.
The dramatic turn of events symbolizes the tech company’s shifting strategy for international…
