was a Japanese company that functioned as an Internet service provider and operator of a web portal and blog platform before being brought down by a scandal in 2006. The company was founded and led in its first 10 years by Takafumi Horie, known as "Horiemon" in Japan. Livedoor grew into one of Japan's premier Internet businesses, putting over 1,000 employees on its payroll at its peak. Its reliance on acquisitions and stock swap mergers to achieve growth also made it one of the country's most controversial enterprises. Its growth came to a resounding halt when scandal erupted in early 2006. An investigation of securities law violations led to a nosedive in the company's stock price. The Tokyo Stock Exchange delisted Livedoor on April 14, 2006. The floundering company's properties were purchased by South Korea-based NHN Corp in 2010. Today the ISP and blog services that bear the Livedoor name are operated by Line Corporation, developers of Line messaging services and the Naver Japan search portal. Line Corporation, based in Japan, was spun off from NHN Japan, an arm of its Korean parent, in February 2013. History Origins and growth Livedoor began in 1995 as Livin' on the Edge, a startup company run by Horie and a group of college friends and was officially founded as Livin' On the EDGE Inc. in April 1996, in Minato, Tokyo. In 1997, it was renamed Livin' On the EDGE Co., Ltd. Though initially a limited company (yugen kaisha), Livin' On the Edge was reorganized into a joint-stock company (kabushiki kaisha) in July 1997 and within only 3 years, went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Mothers market in April 2000. In November 2002, Livin' on the Edge acquired the free Internet services business of Livedoor Corp., which had gone bankrupt. Livin' On the Edge changed its name to Edge Co., Ltd. in April 2003, then adopted the name of the ISP business it had acquired from Livedoor Corp., by renaming itself livedoor Co. Ltd. (Livedoor), in February 2004. This was followed by a 1:100 stock split. In March 2004, during the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment, Livedoor moved to acquire the Kintetsu Buffaloes, a Japanese baseball team, but later withdrew its offer and, in September 2004, founded its own team (named livedoor baseball) and applied for admittance to Japan's professional baseball organization. The team's home ground was to be in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture,