US Stock Futures Hold Steady as Soft Inflation Data Eases Fed Rate Hike Fears 
GameStop Raises eBay Stake to 9.8% as Ryan Cohen Pushes $56 Billion Takeover Bid 
SpaceX Eyes Pentagon AI Deal as Cloud Pricing Strategy Pressures CoreWeave 
IEA Warns China Rare Earth Export Curbs Could Threaten $6.5 Trillion in Global Production 
United Airlines Beats Q2 Earnings, Raises 2026 Profit Outlook Despite Higher Fuel Costs 
Trump Criticizes ABC, NBC and CNN for Limiting Coverage of Election Speech 
Gold Prices Head for Biggest Weekly Loss Since June as Fed Rate Outlook Weighs 
Oil Prices Climb as Trump Escalates Iran Pressure, Strait of Hormuz Risks Grow 
Eli Lilly Eyes AtaiBeckley Acquisition to Expand Psychedelic Mental Health Pipeline 
NTSB Leads Investigation Into Ryanair Boeing 737 Engine Failure Over Greece 
Oil Prices Rise as U.S. Strikes on Iran Raise Strait of Hormuz Supply Fears 
Port of Los Angeles Posts Record June Cargo Volume as Importers Rush Ahead of U.S. Tariffs 
ECB's Kocher Says No Inflation Spillover Yet From Iran Conflict, Warns Risks Remain 
Seven & i Eyes Żabka Stake in Major European Expansion Push 
Apple Intelligence Cleared for China as Alibaba and Baidu AI Power iPhone Features 
SpaceX Aborts Starship Test Flight as Engine Issue Delays Launch 
BHP Q4 Iron Ore Output Rebounds as Copper Prices Boost Revenue 
Tving Corp. and KT’s Seezn over-the-top (OTT) platform announced their plans to merge in July and it took more than three months before South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission released its decision on whether to give the merger and acquisition (M&A) a go-ahead or not.
According to Korea Joongang Daily, the FTC finally gave its seal of approval for Tving and Seezn to continue with their merger deal on Monday, Oct. 31. Once the transaction is completed, the companies will form the second-largest streaming service provider in the country, next to the US-based Netflix.
The FTC explained the reason for its approval by saying, "We have concluded that the merger will not limit competition in the market for the supply of content to over-the-top platforms."
This means the antitrust regulator did not find any reason or issue in case Tving and Seezn came together to offer services. The officials believe the merger is not likely to use its position to increase subscription fees due to tight competition since the unified share is not even half of the Netflix share. KT’s Seezn is joining CJ ENM’s Tving at a ratio of 1 to 1.5737519.
In any case, CJ ENM owned 57% of Tving while Seezn is wholly owned by KT Studio Genie. It was noted that this is the latter’s very first M&A since it was first launched in 2019 when KT Telecom, the country’s second-largest mobile carrier, decided to enter and compete in the global OTT market.
In the early announcement of Tving and Seezn’s merger, the streaming service providers said that the goal of the merger was to bolster and broaden their platforms’ presence in both the local and global markets. To achieve this, they will use their respective market competitiveness to form a synergy between telecommunications and content creation.
They added, “Through the merger, TVING will strengthen its technology and service quality by bringing together content creation and OTT technology with KT’s business structure. The two companies plan to complete the merger by Dec. 1.”
