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Yahoo Japan secures most of founder's stake in ¥400B bid for control of Zozo

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa agreed to sell the majority of his shares in Zozo Inc. to Yahoo Japan Corp., which launched a ¥400 billion bid for control of the Japanese online fashion retailer, the companies announced Sept. 12.

Yahoo Japan, a subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp.'s mobile unit, offered to acquire up to 50.1% of the shares in Zozo for ¥2,620 each. The price represents a 21% premium to the Sept. 11 closing price.

Maezawa agreed to tender 30.37% of the outstanding shares in Zozo. Maezawa, who founded the company, will retain a 6.39% stake after the transaction is completed.

Zozo operates Zozotown, one of the largest e-commerce clothing and fashion websites in Japan. As of June 30, Zozotown served as a platform for 1,297 shops, 7,349 brands and 730,000 products, Yahoo Japan said.

Yahoo Japan cited data that estimated the size of the Japanese market for clothing and fashion retail in 2017 at ¥13.5 trillion, with e-commerce accounting for only ¥1.5 trillion of that amount.

"The share of the clothing/fashion e-commerce market in the entire clothing/fashion retail market in Japan remains relatively low compared to those of the U.S. and the European markets, and there is an ample room for growth for" Zozo, Yahoo Japan said.

Maezawa said that he will step down as president and CEO of Zozo. He will be succeeded by Kotaro Sawada, a director of the company.

Upon deal completion, Yahoo Japan plans to keep Zozo shares listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

As of Sept. 11, US$1 was equivalent to ¥107.73.