IGE, ready to sweep Korean RMT market?

September 4th, 2006 Jun Sok Huhh

About a month ago, IGE bought a Korean RMT mediator, Itemmania. It is not the biggest player but its share in RMT transaction is considerable, around 35%. Hard to believe fact was the price of the company, 4.7B KRW(1000KRW is around 1 USD). It was really under-valued price considering the size of the Korean RMT market. Many suspected that there might be another secretive option in the contract.

Today, some newspapers reported that the biggest player in the market, Itembay, was under negotiation for selling itself to IGE. The selling price is estimated to be between 80B and 90B KRW. If this contract be done, IGE would acutally monopolize the RMT mediation in Korea.

According to an unnamed source, Itembay has tried hard to go public in Korean stock market, but only to fail. The failure was supposed to come from the nature of its business, RMT. Virtual item trading/mediation is not totally legitimate in Korea. Many company are doing their business around RMT-related area, but nothing has been confirmed as perfectly legal in Korea.

If there be another big swing on the issue, I'll post about it, a.s.a.p.

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