Nexon Buys Controlling Stake In GameHi For $59.8 Million

Just a day after announcing favorable results for its 2009 revenues, Seoul-based MMO company Nexon Corp. revealed that it has acquired a controlling stake in Korean online game developer GameHi with a $59.8 million deal. Nexon, best known for publishing popular free-to-play titles like MapleStory and Dungeon Fighter Online, is buying 29.3 percent of GameHi's shares along with management rights for control of the firm from president Kim Gun Il, the company's president and largest shareholder. GameHi's catalog of releases includes free-to-play MMOs like Dekaron, Sudden Attack, Metal Rage, Transpee, and Spring. Its most popular title, Dekaron (pictured), is a 3D fantasy MMORPG and has so far picked up more than 20 million registered users across 50 countries. Nexon's CEO Min Seo said he believes the two companies share a lot of synergies, according to a report from VentureBeat. The publisher also recently acquired a 67 percent stake in another Korean company, Atlantica Online publisher and developer NDoors Corp., and incorporated the studio as a subsidiary. This announcement follows a day after Nexon revealed that its revenues for 2009 shot up by 56 percent to ₩703.6 billion ($561.5 million), compared to ₩450.8 billion ($359.7 million), in the previous year, thanks to growth in its overseas revenues and the increasing popularity of titles like Dungeon Fighter Online, MapleStory, and KartRider.