Nexon, best known for MMOs such as Maple Story, Mabinogi, and Dungeon Fighter Online, has announced the full acquisition of NDOORS Corp. NDOORS is a fellow Korean-owned company, having developed GoonZu Online (also known as Luminary) and Atlantica Online for domestic and foreign markets. This acquisition builds on a previous partnership between Nexon and NDOORS, which led to the development KoongPa!, a comic-styled fighting MMO that was in beta for a short time.
Nexon is acquiring a 67 percent stake in NDOORS. This will include the shares of the former NDOORS Chairman, Seong-Mun Kwon, and allows Nexon management rights as the largest shareholder. NDOORS will be incorporated as a subsidiary of Nexon.
Nexon believes the move will allow the company to, “strengthen its core capabilities by adding the outstanding development efforts of NDOORS.” Nexon CEO Su-Min also added that, “NDOORS, as well as an excellent development capability with domestic and international publishing capabilities would be a big help to expand Nexon’s portfolio and to carry out a global expansion policy.” With the acquisition, Nexon seeks to increase their enterprise value.
NDOORS was established in 1999 and has since released a number of online multiplayer games, with the most notable being the aforementioned Atlantica Online and GoonZu Online. Atlantica Online was awarded the First Prize at the 2008 Korea Game Awards. In 2009, NDOORS had an operating profit of $15.6 billion won and its overseas operation accounted for 72% of its entire sales.
