A few days back, NCsoft held a shareholder meeting, and founder Kim Taek-jin’s term as CEO was extended for another three years. Nexon, NCsoft’s largest shareholder, had Executive Director Kim Jung-wook, and Chief Financial Officer Han Kyung-taek in attendance. This is the first time representatives from both companies are seen publicly in the same room since the massive fallout.
Nexon’s representatives did not oppose the reappointment of Kim Taek-jin, but asked him to stay transparent and give relevant explanations when making future management decisions. Kim Jung-wook expressed his concern for NCsoft to pay almost double the unit stock price compared to what Chinese game giant Tencent shelled out when it bought Netmarble’s shares the previous year.
Kim Taek-jin replied, “I think the unit price of Netmarble’s shares were at an appropriate level, because the company is expected to grow steadily.” The NCsoft founder was further queried about promoting his brother and wife to the company’s top posts, with his wife now the company’s president. Nexon claimed that as the majority shareholder, it wasn’t informed of the decision.
Kim Taek-jin explained even though he does not usually think such a system is ideal as executives who are family members of company heads tend not to take full legal responsibility in most cases, his brother and wife work hard and are willing to “shoulder the burden”. He added that his wife proved her leadership by making NCsoft America profitable after suffering from a deficit previously.
