Blackstone is betting on the popularity of Japanese manga with a $1.7 billion deal to buy a digital provider of romance comics.
The world’s largest alternative asset manager will launch a tender offer for Infocom in its biggest private equity transaction in Japan to date, the U.S. firm said in a statement on Tuesday.
The deal will allow Blackstone to tap into Japan’s digital manga market, which has rapidly grown into a $3 billion industry. Infocom’s main source of revenue is from Mecha Comics, a website and app where users can pay as little as a few cents to read a chapter of serialized comics. Some of the most popular titles include workplace comedies or fantasy melodramas with intimate romantic storylines.