Japan: Investigation opened into Z Holdings' proposed acquisition of LINE Corporation

On 14 July 2020, the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) opened an investigation into Z Holdings' proposed acquisition of Line Corporation, a developer of mobile applications. This follows a notification by the parties regarding the acquisition of shares. Holdings, the parent company of Yahoo Japan and PayPay is part of the SoftBank group, while LINE belongs to the NAVER group. The acquisition, thus, involves the integration of two significant digital platform providers in Japan.