Overview
- LY Corp and Bain Capital lifted their all-cash offer for Kakaku.com to ¥3,232 per share, topping EQT’s ¥3,000 per-share proposal.
- EQT has launched a tender offer to take Kakaku.com private at ¥3,000 per share, valuing the company at about ¥593.5 billion, with the board and a special committee urging shareholders to tender.
- Kakaku.com shares traded around ¥3,400 after the competing bids, a price that suggests investors expect the contest to continue.
- Digital Garage and KDDI, which together hold 38.1% of Kakaku.com, agreed to sell their shares to EQT, giving that bid significant early backing.
- Kakaku.com runs the price-comparison site of the same name, the Tabelog restaurant review and booking platform, and the Kyujin Box job service, so the winning buyer would shape tools used daily by diners, shoppers, and job seekers in Japan.