Game Industry Leaders Reappointed One After Another During Shareholders' Meeting Season

Bang Jun-hyuk, Chairman of Netmarble

원본보기 아이콘

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-gyu Lee] The gaming industry is making a series of decisions to renew the terms of key executives as the shareholder meeting season approaches.

According to the industry on the 23rd, major game companies have scheduled shareholder meetings as follows: Com2uS on the 24th, NCSoft on the 25th, Netmarble, Wemade, Pearl Abyss, and SundayToz on the 27th, and NHN on the 30th.

First, Netmarble will handle a proposal at its shareholder meeting to extend Chairman Bang Jun-hyuk's term by three years. Chairman Bang’s reappointment term is until 2023. Bang, the founder of Netmarble, has been leading the company's management on the board since 2014. He is also the largest shareholder, holding 24.16% of Netmarble’s shares. This year, he is preparing to strengthen the global position of the core game business and create new business synergies by combining the recently acquired Coway’s 'subscription economy' business with Netmarble’s IT technology. In his New Year's address, he urged, "Please strive to establish strong competitiveness in the core business of gaming to complete a stronger Netmarble." Following the success of the ambitious first half release 'A3: Still Alive,' Netmarble plans to launch new titles utilizing its own intellectual property (IP), such as 'Seven Knights 2.' Netmarble also plans to extend the term of Piao Yanli, Vice President of Tencent Games and a non-executive director, by three years.

NHN will handle a proposal to extend CEO Jung Woo-jin’s term by three years. Jung, who has led NHN since February 2014, plans to accelerate investment in machine learning talent recruitment with the goal of AI specialization across the group, including the native AI Go service 'Handol' launched this year. NHN also aims to expand its offline payment business by increasing the number of 'Payco Order' affiliated stores more than fivefold compared to last year.

Wemade will discuss the three-year reappointment of CEO Jang Hyun-guk. Since taking office in March 2014, CEO Jang plans to release new titles utilizing Wemade’s flagship game IP 'Mir’s Legend (Mir)' and actively expand content businesses such as webtoons and web novels this year. Wemade is in the final stages of preparing to launch 'Mir4,' 'MirM,' and 'MirW,' which utilize the Mir IP.

CEO Kim Jung-seop of SundayToz will also have his term extended by three years. SundayToz plans to release 'Anipang 4' in the second quarter, the first in the Anipang series to feature guild-type social networking and real-time battles. Following last year’s release of 'Disney Pop,' CEO Kim aims to continue the success momentum with Anipang 4 this year.

Com2uS will handle a proposal at this shareholder meeting to extend the terms of inside directors Lee Yong-guk and Song Jae-jun, who also serve as Vice Presidents of Gamevil, by three years.

Meanwhile, NCSoft will appoint Choi Young-joo, a member of the Presidential National Science and Technology Advisory Council, as an outside director at this shareholder meeting. They will also handle a proposal to approve an increase in the director compensation limit. The limit has been set at 20 billion KRW, an increase of 5 billion KRW from the previous limit. This means that the maximum total compensation for the seven NCSoft directors is 20 billion KRW, averaging about 2.8 billion KRW per director. NCSoft explained, "Since 2013, the cumulative increase rate of the director compensation limit has been only 25%, with only one increase, while during the same period, the company’s revenue, operating profit, and net profit have all more than doubled, and the stock price has tripled."

© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.