Line Games, chat app Line's gaming division, raises $110M from Anchor Equity Partners; Anchor acquires 27.5% stake, dilutes Line's holdings to a minority 41.7%
Context & Ripple Effects
Line has spent years turning its messaging app into a portfolio of side businesses — from the $45M stake in Snapchat-like app Snow to a push into cryptocurrency trading and insurance announced earlier in 2018. Selling down its gaming division is the next step in that playbook.
The $110M round hands Anchor Equity Partners a 27.5% stake and pushes Line below majority control at 41.7%. It also sets a template the company would reuse: five years later, Line Next raised $140M led by Crescendo Equity Partners under the same carve-out-and-sell-stakes structure.
First-order effects
- Line Games gains $110M of growth capital while Line Corp.'s ownership drops to a minority 41.7%, meaning major division decisions now require negotiating with Anchor Equity Partners.
Second-order effects
- The deal frees Line to keep funding its diversification into financial services and other bets without carrying the full cost of its games business on its own balance sheet.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — as it did with Line Next's later Crescendo-led round — messaging platforms will increasingly run their content and gaming units as separately capitalized companies with outside investors, rather than wholly owned divisions.
The trend: Messaging platforms are carving out their entertainment and gaming subsidiaries and selling minority stakes to outside investors to fund broader diversification beyond chat.