LY Corp. has jumped into the race to acquire Tabelog, a restaurant search platform with more than 100 million annual users.
LY Corp. said on the 2nd it formally proposed acquisition terms to Kakaku.com, which operates Tabelog, offering 3,500 yen (about 33,500 won) per share and a total of 670 billion yen (about 6.4 trillion won).
The offer tops the 3,000 yen (about 28,700 won) per-share price and aggregates of 590 billion yen (about 5.64 trillion won) proposed by Sweden-based private equity firm EQT.
LY Corp. is pursuing the Tabelog acquisition in partnership with U.S. investment firm Bain Capital.
LY Corp. plans to use restaurant industry data accumulated by Tabelog to enhance its own services.
LY Corp.'s largest shareholder is A Holdings, a joint venture established by Naver and SoftBank. SoftBank and Naver each hold 50% equity in A Holdings.