Business dealsBehind the scenes of the $27bn Yahoo-Line merger
Deal driven by desire to defend Japan and grow in Asia -- and SoftBank's deep pockets
Line has 44 million users in Thailand, more than Facebook Messenger, Skype or WeChat. © Getty Images
TAKAFUMI HOTTA, MASAYUKI YUDA and WATARU SUZUKI, Nikkei staff writers
November 15, 2019 16:07 JST
TOKYO/BANGKOK -- It was two months ago that Yahoo Japan and Line got serious about merging their two companies in a $27 billion union that would create an internet platform serving over 100 million people and could be big enough to fend off U.S. tech giants like Facebook from Japan.