Naver decides not to acquire Baemin stake

Naver has decided not to acquire a stake in Korea's largest food delivery platform, Baemin, four months after a report alleged that the mobile platform company was considering forming a consortium with Uber to take over Baemin. “We reviewed scenarios on acquiring a stake in Baemin, but we have decided not to proceed with the acquisition, due to changes in the business environment and other factors,” Naver said in a regulatory filing Thursday. The filing came in response to a news report in May that Naver and Uber were considering forming a consortium with a 20-80 ownership split to acquire a stake in Baemin operator Woowa Brothers from its German parent company, Delivery Hero. At the time, Naver said it was reviewing various measures to strengthen its business competitiveness and that no concrete decisions had been made. However, the situation changed when Uber agreed in July to acquire a 100 percent stake in Delivery Hero for $14.8 billion. If completed, the deal would also bring the German group’s wholly owned Korean subsidiary, Woowa Brothers, under Uber. Uber said the deal is ex