Kakaku.com's board still supports the Kamgras 1 tender offer, which now pays ¥3,683 a share, ¥1 more than before, and runs to Nov 12. The rival bid from Bain Capital and LINE Yahoo is higher on its face at ¥3,700, but it is an announced intention to launch an offer, and the company's notice describes it as not yet started.
| Bid | Price per share | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Kamgras 1 tender offer | ¥3,683 | Open, extended to Nov 12 (125 business days in total); board supports it |
| BCPE Blitz Cayman, L.P. (Bain Capital and LINE Yahoo) | ¥3,700 (¥3,720 with a KDDI non-tender agreement) | Announced proposal; offer not started |
What changed on Oct 28
Kamgras 1 filed an amended tender offer registration statement on Oct 28, moving its price from ¥3,682 to ¥3,683 and extending the offer period to Nov 12, a total of 125 business days. Kakaku.com says Kamgras 1 is weighing its response to the company's Oct 27 request to discuss price under their tender offer agreement, but has decided nothing. Kakaku.com made that request because the rival's Oct 26 proposal exceeded the offer price then in force. See also Earlier Tokyo Brief coverage.
Why the headline prices do not compare cleanly
The rival's ¥3,720 applies only if it signs a non-tender agreement with KDDI. Kamgras 1 says the existing KDDI non-tender agreement lets KDDI tender into the rival offer only if the rival prices at least 2% above Kamgras 1's offer, a threshold it puts at ¥3,757 after the Oct 28 change, so it says neither ¥3,700 nor ¥3,720 qualifies. Kamgras 1 also says that while its offer runs, a shareholder named DG cannot tender into the rival bid under its own non-tender agreement, which it argues makes the two-thirds of voting rights needed for a take-private hard to secure.
These are Kamgras 1's assessments, relayed in Kakaku.com's notice. Kamgras 1 adds that the rival moved its planned start from mid-September to "undetermined", citing an unmet precondition: the target's endorsement.
The board's position
The special committee's report is unchanged as of Oct 29. So is the board's July 2 opinion: it supports the Kamgras 1 offer but leaves the decision to tender to shareholders and to holders of stock acquisition rights.
Kakaku.com says repeated extensions while the rival offer stays unstarted are undesirable for corporate value and ordinary shareholders. It also says the two offers cannot both go ahead. The special committee will keep talking to both camps and weigh which deal better serves corporate value and shareholders' common interest, and whether a tender could succeed.
On Oct 16, the committee asked the Kamgras 1 consortium to raise its price to a level that would reasonably bring early completion, and asked the rival to remove its two-tier pricing. On Oct 26, the consortium replied that it would not raise its price on the strength of market prices set under the rival's dual-price announcement, and would review the rival's proposal.
Timetable and buyback price
The extraordinary shareholders' meeting to approve the squeeze-out is now expected in early January 2027, rather than mid-December 2026. The planned buyback price for shares held by non-tendering shareholders rose to ¥2,994 per pre-consolidation share from ¥2,993.