Z Holdings Corporation is a

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

-based

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

. Z Holdings owns

Yahoo! Japan is a Japanese internet company originally formed as a joint venture between the American internet company Yahoo! (later divested by Verizon into Altaba) and the Japanese company SoftBank. It is headquartered at Kioi Tower in the Tokyo Garden Terr ...

, Japan's largest portal website; Line, Japan's largest

messaging app Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...

; and

PayPay PayPay Corporation is a Japanese company that develops electronic payment services. It was established in 2018 as a joint venture between the SoftBank Group and Yahoo Japan through Z Holdings, their holding company. With 38 million users, PayPay ...

, Japan's largest

mobile payment A mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device, as the cardinal class of d ...

app. Z Holdings is controlled by another holding corporation called ''A Holdings'' which is half controlled by each

Naver Corporation The Naver Corporation is a South Korean internet conglomerate headquartered in Seongnam that operates the search engine Naver. Naver established itself as an early pioneer in the use of user-generated content through the creation of the onlin ...

and

SoftBank Group is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the Vi ...

. After finishing its merger of Yahoo! Japan and

Line Corporation Line Corporation is a Tokyo-based subsidiary of Z Holdings, which is jointly owned by Softbank Group and Naver Corporation. The company's business is mainly associated with the development of mobile applications and Internet services, particular ...

in March 2021, the company had a $43 billion market capitalization.

History

Originally, the company was established as Yahoo Japan Corporation in January 1996, but on October 1, 2019, it changed to a holding company structure due to a company split and changed its corporate name. Due to the reorganization of the group centered on Yahoo Japan Corporation in 2019, the information and communication business division (Yahoo! JAPAN business) was absorbed and split into Yahoo Japan Corporation, and the financial enterprise management division Was split into Z Financial Co., Ltd. and transferred to a holding company, and is responsible for the management function of the entire group centered on subsidiaries from the time of the first corporation. On November 2019 an announcement was made that a joint venture between

Softbank Corp is a Japanese multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and ...

and

was agreed upon to merge the Z holdings corporation with LINE. Under which LINE, as well as various other assets of the Z Holdings Corporation, would be controlled by another holding company called ''A Holdings Corporation''. The A Holdings Corporation ownership was then split 50% between Naver Corporation and Softbank Corp. In March 2021

officially merged with

, which had been operated by Z Holdings. Upon integrating the two businesses and creating further platforms, the merged company aims to compete with the U.S. tech giants Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple and the Chinese tech giants

Baidu Baidu, Inc. ( ; , meaning "hundred times") is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products and artificial intelligence (AI), headquartered in Beijing's Haidian District. It is one of the la ...

Alibaba Ali Baba (character), Ali Baba is a character from the folk tale ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves''. Ali Baba or Alibaba may also refer to: Films * Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1902 film), ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'' (1902 film), a F ...

, and

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the w ...

, as well as the Japanese e-commerce giant

Rakuten () is a Japanese technology conglomerate based in Tokyo, founded by Hiroshi Mikitani in 1997. Centered around Rakuten Ichiba, its businesses include financial services utilizing financial technology, as well as digital content and communicati ...

. The merger also gives Z Holdings three additional Asian markets where Line is popular: Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia. Founded in 2021, LINE Bank is a

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make profit. It can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which deals with cor ...

headquartered in

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, and owned by Z Holdings.

Timeline

*2019 **October 1-Implemented the following organizational restructuring and transitioned to a holding company structure . Of the Yahoo Japan Corporation (first corporation) businesses, the businesses excluding the group business management business (Yahoo! JAPAN business) were absorbed and split into Kioimachi Split Preparation Co., Ltd. (the trade name was changed to Yahoo Japan Corporation (second corporation) on the same date). Business transfer by. Among the businesses of Yahoo Japan Corporation (the first corporation), the business management business of a financial group company was transferred to Kioicho Financial Split Preparation Co., Ltd. (the trade name was changed to Z Financial Co., Ltd. on the same day) by a simple split. Yahoo Japan Corporation (the first corporation) will be engaged only in the group business management business excluding financial services, and changed its trade name to Z Holdings Co., Ltd. on the same date . **November 13-The takeover bid for ZOZO Co., Ltd. was completed, and on the same day, 50.10% of the issued shares were acquired and made into a consolidated subsidiary. **November 18-Basic agreement with LINE Corporation on business integration . **December 18-Transferred shares held by SoftBank Corp. to Shiodome Z Holdings Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary, and became a consolidated subsidiary of the company . **December 23-Final agreement on business integration with Softbank, Naver, and LINE . **December 27-Corporate venture capital (English version) related business is absorbed and split into a wholly owned subsidiary Yahoo Japan Corporation . *2021 **February 26-LINE Co., Ltd. acquired the shares of the Company held by Shiodome Z Holdings GK through a takeover bid, and LINE Co., Ltd. absorbed Shiodome Z Holdings GK. LINE Co., Ltd., which became the new parent company, will be a 50-50 stake between Naver and Softbank. **February 28-The parent company LINE Co., Ltd. transferred the business to LINE Split Preparation Co., Ltd. and changed its trade name to A Holdings Co., Ltd. **March 1-LINE Co., Ltd. (2nd generation, former LINE Split Preparation Co., Ltd.) became a wholly owned subsidiary through a share exchange.

References

External links

Z Holdings
{{Authority control Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Internet in Japan Z Holdings Telecommunications companies based in Tokyo