Yahoo Japan's offer price of 2,620 yen per share is a premium of around 21 percent compared to Wednesday's undisturbed closing price. Zozo shares jumped as much 19 percent in early Tokyo trading with Yahoo Japan shares up around 4 percent. Zozo has a market value of around 680 billion yen, according to Refinitiv data. The deal would give Maezawa a windfall or around $2.3 billion.
"I will entrust Zozo to a new president and take my own path," Maezawa said in a Twitter post. The entrepreneur has generated attention for his flashy lifestyle, including paying $110 million for a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting and signing up as the first private passenger to be taken around the moon by Elon Musk's SpaceX. However, Maezawa has recently sold part of his extensive art collection, saying he has no money.
His company, which runs the Zozotown online mall, has been struggling. In the last financial year it booked its first annual drop in earnings due to a failed experiment with bespoke tailoring and clashes with fashion brands over discounting. Yahoo Japan is a consolidated subsidiary of telco SoftBank Corp, which in turn is controlled by tech conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp.