Wattpad's transition to a wholly-owned subsidiary provides new opportunities, says Greenberg
The legal team at Canadian online storytelling platform Wattpad navigated many complex issues when the company was acquired by South Korean internet conglomerate Naver in a US$600 million transaction in May 2021.
“We found a partner that was a perfect fit, but closing a deal with a Korean company buying a Canadian start-up was incredibly complex in terms of trans-border issues and currency issues on top of so many other transactional issues,” says Jamie Greenberg, general counsel at Wattpad, who acted as quarterback on the transaction. “I’m particularly proud of the work I did in ensuring that the deal closed smoothly and everyone was happy with it,” he says. The deal took nine months to close from start to finish so Greenberg continued to lead the business forward while navigating the many issues that arose.
Under the Naver brand umbrella, Wattpad continues to focus on growth and innovations, expanding its teams, and developing new initiatives to reward writers on the platform. The company has also had to reassess the way it operates as a subsidiary of a larger company, versus a venture-backed company, which Greenberg says was challenging but also a great opportunity as Wattpad now has access to significantly more resources as part of Naver.
With the increased resources, Wattpad is able to scale its studio, build its platform and accelerate the development of TV and film projects. From the legal department, Greenberg is working on boosting the company’s privacy practice across the platform, and monitoring new laws in Canada to ensure that Wattpad is in full compliance.
As general counsel at Wattpad for the past three years, Greenberg manages all elements of commercial deals and contracts across the business, as well as employment matters and privacy matters. Greenberg sees his three-person legal department as enablers of the business.
“One of the hardest challenges for in-house lawyers is not defaulting to ‘no’ but rather finding creative ways to get the ‘yes’,” he says. “I really reiterate to my team that our job is to be creative and figure out how legal can enable decisions that will help the business.”
As Wattpad continues the transition from a venture-backed company to a wholly-owned subsidiary, Greenberg is assessing his priorities from a legal perspective. His goals for 2022 include building a world-class privacy program and launching an impactful public policy initiative.
“At the same time, we’re keeping the lights on as a business, moving the business forward on a commercial level, and really engaging our amazing user-base to ensure they stay engaged on the platform,” says Greenberg. Prior to joining Wattpad, Greenberg held in-house roles at the CRTC, and at telecoms start-up Public Mobile. He also founded a small TV development and production company called Facet4 Media.
Greenberg is a speaker at the Counselwell Summit on May 11 – 12.
