South Korea’s leading mobile carrier KT Corp. in hands with its digital advertising affiliate Nasmedia Co. will acquire 100 percent stake in N Search Marketing Corp., the country’s No.1 search engine marketing agency, at 60 billion won ($54 million) in a bid to diversify its profit structure from the current telecommunication-centered business.

KT and Nasmedia on Monday said they will take over 100 percent stake in N Search Marketing from Seoul-based private equity investment firm Hahn & Company. The mobile carrier will acquire 33.3 percent and the digital ad agency 66.7 percent at a total of 600 billion won. It is the telecom service provider’s first acquisitions project since Hwang Chang-gyu, chief executive officer of KT assumed his office in January 2014.

Under the acquisition plan, Nasmedia will issue new shares worth 20 billion won for the private equity firm to acquire. It plans to issue about 801,000 shares at 29,950 won per share, and pay for the rest of the acquisition from its cash hoard.

N Search Marketing is the country’s No. 1 search engine marketing agency that handles advertisement works for the country’s leading web porters Naver and Daum as well as global giants Google and Facebook’s online advertisements in Korea. The search engine marketing refers to feeding customized ads to web users based on analysis of each customer’s keywords used for online searches.

The search engine marketing agency started its service in 2000 as a division under the country’s largest internet porter operator Naver Corp. and was separated from its parent two years ago. It has vast advertising experience ranging from search engine advertisement to other media including social network based and mobile phone-based marketing, and registered 4.9 billion won in operating profit on handling volume worth 308.8 billion won last year.

By Seo Chan-dong

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]