South Korea’s antitrust watchdog has approved a deal between internet major Naver Corp. and BTS label Hybe Co. to merge their K-pop fan community platform services.

On March 2, Naver and Weverse Company Inc., the fan community running subsidiary of Hybe, filed a business combination report with the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) after signing a deal in January to merge their fan community and streaming platforms.

Under the deal, Weverse will take over Naver’s V Live video streaming business and Naver will acquire a 49 percent stake in Weverse for 412 billion won ($364.27 million).

The FTC announced Thursday that it has given a nod to the proposed deal on the grounds that it is not likely to hurt market competition as there are already several operators providing similar services like NCsoft’s K-pop platform Universe and SM Entertainment’s mobile fan community Lysn.

By Lee Soo-min

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