Naver's labor union opposes Line Yahoo divestment citing possible job insecurities

Naver’s labor union is against the company’s possible move to divest its stake in Line Yahoo (LY), the operator behind Japan’s popular messaging app Line, fearing potential job insecurities and loss of technological assets.

Naver is under discussion with Softbank to trim its equity in Line Yahoo, the operator behind Japan's popular messaging app Line. [YONHAP]

Naver’s labor union is against the company’s possible move to divest its stake in Line Yahoo (LY), the operator behind Japan’s popular messaging app Line, fearing potential job insecurities and loss of technological assets.

“What should be the company’s top priority is to protect the Korean workers under LY and the technology and the skill that they’ve accumulated,” the labor union said in a statement Monday. “The best course of action to protect them is not to divest the shares.”

LY is 64.5 percent owned by A Holdings, a 50:50 joint venture between Naver and SoftBank.

Naver announced on Friday that it is “exploring all possibilities” with SoftBank, including unloading its stake in LY, but did not elaborate further on the issue.

“This doesn’t just mean relinquishing A Holdings’ controlling stake,” the union's statement said. “It represents the passion, effort, technology and experience of the members who have worked hard to bring Line, a service that originated from Naver, to achieve global recognition — and to have all of that be passed to SoftBank, along with potential job insecurities for Korean workers.”

The union said that the 300 employees who attended an internal online briefing after Naver’s Friday announcement also expressed concerns about the future of the service and the members.

“We say once again, the best option to protect our workers is not to divest,” the union said. “The departure of Line workforces who feel unsure about the divestment may lead to a decline in the quality of service.”

The union slammed SoftBank’s demand to increase its stake to protect Line from security breaches as “unreasonable and unfair” and called out to the Korean government to safeguard the Korean workforce and technology.

“We request the government to actively and firmly respond to the predicament where Korean companies may receive unfair treatment, have their technology stolen and incur job losses.”

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]