WEBTOON Entertainment, a leading global online cartoon platform carved-out of South Korea's NAVER, announced terms for its IPO on Monday.
The Los Angeles, CA-based company plans to raise $293 million by offering 15 million shares at a price range of $18 to $21. A new investor intends to purchase $50 million worth of shares in the offering (17% of the deal), and parent NAVER intends to purchase $50 million worth of shares in a concurrent private placement. At the midpoint of the proposed range, WEBTOON Entertainment would command a fully diluted market value of $2.6 billion.
Originally founded as a unit of NAVER and carved out in 2017, WEBTOON is a global storytelling platform focused on web comics and web novels. The company believes it has pioneered a new form of digital storytelling, allowing for long-form stories to be told through serialized releases of bite-sized episodes available online. WEBTOON's community connects 24 million creators with approximately 170 million monthly active users in over 150 countries around the world.
WEBTOON Entertainment was founded in 2005 and booked $1.3 billion in revenue for the 12 months ended March 31, 2024. It plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol WBTN. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Evercore ISI, Deutsche Bank, UBS Investment Bank, and HSBC are the joint bookrunners on the deal. It is expected to price during the week of June 24, 2024.
