{"id":127232,"date":"2026-08-21T03:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T03:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/127232\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T03:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T03:08:14","slug":"kakao-corp-to-split-into-two-companies-as-share-price-plunges-on-announcement-of-spin-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/127232\/","title":{"rendered":"Kakao Corp. to Split Into Two Companies as Share Price Plunges on Announcement of Spin-Off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Board approves spin-off on the 21st KakaoTalk and AI businesses to go to new Kakao AI Banks, payments and other units to remain under Kakao X Shares fall as much as 12% intraday after announcement <\/p>\n

Kakao Corp. will split the company into ‘Kakao AI’ and ‘Kakao X’ through a spin-off. The new entity, Kakao AI, will take over the KakaoTalk-centered artificial intelligence platform business, while the surviving company, Kakao X, will handle core affiliates such as tech finance, content and mobility, as well as future investments. The move is aimed at accelerating growth in line with the AI era.<\/p>\n

Kakao said it held a board meeting on the 21st and approved the spin-off into Kakao AI and Kakao X. Based on book value of net assets, the split ratio is 0.36 for Kakao AI and 0.64 for Kakao X. Because this is a spin-off, existing shareholders will receive shares in both companies according to the ratio.<\/p>\n

Shina Chung, the current CEO of Kakao Corp., will lead Kakao AI, while Derek Do-Young Kim, who heads Kakao Investment and serves as chief of the group investment strategy unit under Kakao’s CA council, will head Kakao X.<\/p>\n

\"Kakao's \uc0ac\uc9c4 \ud655\ub300 Kakao’s governance restructuring plan <\/p>\n

Kakao plans to complete the split on Jan. 1 next year after an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders on Dec. 17. It also aims to relist Kakao AI and change-list Kakao X on Jan. 27.<\/p>\n

Kakao AI will focus on linking AI, advertising and commerce around KakaoTalk. Operating subsidiaries such as DK Techin and KN Works will be placed under Kakao AI. The company plans to redesign KakaoTalk, which has built relationships, conversations and service connectivity over the past 15 years, for the AI era. Its goal is to evolve KakaoTalk into an ‘agentic AI interface’ that understands the context of 50 million users.<\/p>\n

Kakao AI aims to secure more than 20 million daily active AI users by 2030 and increase platform engagement time by more than 50%. It also plans to expand new revenue streams such as AI advertising, agentic commerce and subscriptions. By 2030, it aims to generate more than 6 trillion won in revenue.<\/p>\n

Kakao X will serve as a future-value investment company. It will seek stable growth for tech-finance affiliates such as KakaoBank Corp, Kakao Pay and Kakao Pay Securities, content affiliates such as Kakao Entertainment Corp., SM Entertainment and Kakao Piccoma, and major vertical businesses such as Kakao Mobility Corp., while also pursuing new business ventures and investments in innovative companies. By 2030, it aims to achieve an average annual revenue growth rate of 13.3% across major businesses and build a growth base capable of generating more than 10 trillion won in revenue.<\/p>\n

\"Kakao, \uc0ac\uc9c4 \ud655\ub300 Kakao, which operates the nation’s leading messenger app KakaoTalk, has launched its ‘AI for everyone’ project. In the photo, an employee walks past the Kakao logo. [Maeil Business Newspaper DB] <\/p>\n

Kakao expects the split to allow each business to be valued more clearly. It said the average potential value of the Kakao Group, based on the sum-of-the-parts consensus from research centers at domestic and overseas brokerages, stands at 34.2 trillion won, which is 17.4 trillion won higher than the group’s average market capitalization of 16.8 trillion won over the past three months. The company said this shows that the market has not properly recognized its value.<\/p>\n

That is why Kakao presented a shareholder return policy alongside the split plan. Kakao AI will use 20% to 35% of its adjusted free cash flow as a base for shareholder returns. Kakao X will use 30% of dividends from subsidiaries and 30% of investment gains for the same purpose. Kakao also announced a 300 billion won share buyback and cancellation plan using gains from the recent sale of Dunamu Inc.<\/p>\n

Shina Chung, CEO of Kakao Corp., said, “This split is a decision to transform Kakao into a structure of speed and responsibility suited to the AI era.” She added, “Kakao AI and Kakao X will establish strategies and capital allocation principles that fit the characteristics of their respective businesses, execute more quickly, and work to communicate their results transparently to the market.”<\/p>\n

Kakao founder Kim Beom-soo said, “In the mobile era, Kakao was the first to leap into uncharted territory, create innovation and change users’ daily lives.” He added, “The AI era demands a different level of agility, so I will support the redesign of our growth structure into two engines, Kakao AI and Kakao X, so that the results can be shared with shareholders, users and crew members alike.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kakao’s share price fell more than 12% intraday on the 21st after the company announced its spin-off plan. As of 10:56 a.m. that day, Kakao was trading at 33,950 won on the Korea Exchange Main Board, down 12.27% or 4,750 won from the previous session. The decline appears to reflect weakening investor sentiment amid growing uncertainty over the spin-off.<\/p>\n

\nThis article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Board approves spin-off on the 21st KakaoTalk and AI businesses to go to new Kakao AI Banks, payments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[622],"tags":[2588,20695,827,831,732,39422,65257],"class_list":["post-127232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kakao","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-ceo","tag-kakao","tag-kakaotalk","tag-shareholder-returns","tag-spin-off","tag-split-ratio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}