Blackstone Taps Japan’s Romance Manga Fans in $1.7 Billion Deal

Blackstone Inc. 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 Corp. in its biggest private equity transaction in Japan to date, the US 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 ...