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WBTN, WEBTOON Entertainment Inc.
WEBTOON is a global storytelling platform where a vibrant community of creators and users discover, create and share new content.
Our community connected 27 million creators with approximately 157 million monthly active users in over 150 countries around the world. 1 Our Platform Our creators, users and content drive a powerful community flywheel.
By creating and publishing new and diverse content, creators on our platform help drive the scale of our user base.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Next report By 11/8 · the 10-Q for the quarter ended late September · due within 40 days of period end · has filed ~44 days after · the wire records it on arrival
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- What it is
- Revenue is Paid Content (79%), Advertising (12%) and IP Adaptations (9%).
- Situation
- Unprofitable. No sustained operating profit across the record; an earnings multiple has nothing to rest on. What the record does show is revenue, the gross-margin trajectory, and the burn against the cash on hand.
- What moves the needle
- Operating margin has run around −6.0% through the cycle on a 24% gross margin, the operating line deeply negative — so the lever is the path to a margin at all: revenue growth against the cost curve and the cash runway, not the level of a margin that isn't there yet. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on pricing power & competition, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median −8%, above 15% in 0 of 4 years). Owner earnings, the cash-based check, have been thin too. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
Where the money comes from
read the 10-K →Paid Content is 79% of revenue, with Advertising the other meaningful line at 12%.
- Paid Content79%$1.1B
- Advertising12%$164M
- IP Adaptations9%$131M
From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2022–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMJun 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | |||||
| $1.1B | $1.3B | $1.3B | $1.4B | $1.4B | RevenueRevenue |
| $273M | $295M | $339M | $322M | $334M | Gross profitGross prof. |
| 25% | 23% | 25% | 23% | 24% | Gross marginGross mgn |
| 19% | 16% | 25% | 19% | 19% | SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev |
| ($115M) | ($36M) | ($101M) | ($64M) | ($52M) | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| −10.6% | −2.8% | −7.5% | −4.6% | −3.8% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| ($118M) | ($133M) | ($149M) | ($389M) | — | Pretax incomePretax |
| ($130M) | ($116M) | ($144M) | ($346M) | ($344M) | Net incomeNet inc. |
| Cash flow & returns | |||||
| ($141M) | $15M | $18M | $11M | $6M | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| $35M | $38M | $40M | $35M | $34M | Depreciation & amortizationD&A |
| ($45M) | $90M | $34M | $280M | $280M | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| $3M | $10M | $2M | $8M | $10M | CapexCapex |
| 0.2% | 0.8% | 0.2% | 0.6% | 0.7% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| ($143M) | $5M | $15M | $4M | ($4M) | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| −13.3% | 0.4% | 1.1% | 0.3% | −0.3% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| ($143M) | $5M | $15M | $4M | ($4M) | Free cash flowFCF |
| −13.3% | 0.4% | 1.1% | 0.3% | −0.3% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| — | $0 | $0 | $148K | $0 | AcquisitionsAcquis. |
| ($51M) | ($52M) | ($17M) | ($7M) | — | Investing cash flowInv. cash |
| $350M | ($6M) | $354M | $1M | — | Financing cash flowFin. cash |
| ($20M) | ($4M) | ($14M) | $4M | — | Exchange-rate effectFX |
| $139M | ($48M) | $341M | $9M | — | Change in cashΔ cash |
| -8% | -3% | -9% | -9% | -7% | ROICROIC |
| -9% | -9% | -10% | -30% | -30% | Return on equityROE |
| −9% | −9% | −10% | −30% | −30% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | |||||
| $280M | $232M | $572M | $582M | $583M | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| — | $172M | $169M | $177M | $191M | ReceivablesReceiv. |
| — | $127M | $127M | $137M | $134M | Accounts payablePayables |
| — | $44M | $42M | $40M | $58M | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| — | $493M | $836M | $831M | $847M | Current assetsCur. assets |
| — | $316M | $313M | $319M | $322M | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| — | 1.6× | 2.7× | 2.6× | 2.6× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| — | $12M | $4M | $8M | — | Net PP&ENet PP&E |
| $884M | $779M | $665M | $337M | $328M | GoodwillGoodwill |
| — | $1.8B | $1.9B | $1.6B | $1.6B | Total assetsAssets |
| — | $95K | $0 | — | — | Total debtDebt |
| — | ($232M) | ($572M) | — | — | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| -135.9× | -460.2× | -2237.8× | -1134.1× | -601.3× | Interest coverageInt. cov. |
| — | $429M | $379M | $367M | — | Total liabilitiesTotal liab. |
| $47M | $41M | $37M | $25M | — | Redeemable interestsRedeemable |
| $85M | $57M | $48M | $33M | — | Noncontrolling interestsNCI |
| $1.5B | $1.2B | $1.5B | $1.2B | $1.2B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| 0.0% | 0.3% | 6.5% | 3.0% | 2.6% | Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev |
| — | $63M | $70M | $336M | $336M | Goodwill written downGW imp. |
| Per share | |||||
| 107M | 110M | 119M | 130M | 134M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $10.14 | $11.71 | $11.31 | $10.62 | $10.18 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $-1.22 | $-1.06 | $-1.21 | $-2.66 | $-2.56 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $-1.35 | $0.04 | $0.13 | $0.03 | $-0.03 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $-1.35 | $0.04 | $0.13 | $0.03 | $-0.03 | Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh |
| $0.03 | $0.09 | $0.02 | $0.06 | $0.08 | Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh |
| $13.79 | $11.41 | $12.35 | $8.99 | $8.66 | Book value / shareBVPS |
| 3-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +1.6%/yr | +1.6%/yr (3-yr) |
| Capital spending / share | +32.2%/yr | +32.2%/yr (3-yr) |
| Book value / share | −13.3%/yr | −13.3%/yr (3-yr) |
Where the cash went
ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedEach year's operating cash, by what management did with it: the mix, and how it drifts.
Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.
In fiscal 2025 the business turned a $346M loss into $4M of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | ($346M) | ($144M) | ($116M) | ($130M) |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +$35M | +$40M | +$38M | +$35M |
| Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost | +$42M | +$87M | +$3M | — |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | +$280M | +$34M | +$90M | −$45M |
| Cash from operations | $11M | $18M | $15M | ($141M) |
| Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow | −$8M | −$2M | −$10M | −$3M |
| Owner earnings | $4M | $15M | $5M | ($143M) |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | 0% | 1% | 0% | -13% |
Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position . The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $42M), owner earnings is nearer ($38M).
Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
Will it survive?
- Can it pay its interest? -1134.1×Does not cover its interestOperating income ($64M) ÷ interest expense $56K
What this means
A full year of operating profit didn't cover the interest bill. This is the zombie zone: the business depends on refinancing, asset sales, or forbearance to service its debt.
- Net cash, debt-freeCash $582M − debt $0
What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $582M, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
- Not enough data
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
Is it a good business?
- Below average through the cycle4-yr median, range -9%–-3%; -9% latest = NOPAT ($50M) ÷ invested capital $589MIndustry peers: median 8%
What this means
The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 4 years (it ran -9% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
- Thin, recently turned positivelatest $4M = operating cash $11M − maintenance capex $8M; positive each of the last 3 years, after an earlier loss stretch (4-yr median 0%)Industry peers: median 8%
What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 0% of revenue this year, a 0% median across 4 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $42M of SBC) leaves ($38M).
- Loss, but cash-generativeNet income ($346M) · cash from operations $11M
In the filing’s words And the filing leans heavily on adjusted, non-GAAP earnings — steering you off the GAAP figure just where the cash is not backing it. Read the reconciliation in the notes before taking the adjusted number.
What this means
The company reported a net loss, so a conversion ratio isn't meaningful. What matters then is whether operations still threw off cash, here, they did.
How is the cash used?
- Not enough data
What this means
The filing data didn't include the inputs for this check.
- Investing or harvesting? 0.22×HarvestingCapex $8M ÷ depreciation & amortization as filed $35M
What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.
The promise and the pay packet
- Is the buyback buying ownership, or mopping up? 3.0%The count is risingStock compensation $42M (fiscal 2025), 3.0% of revenue · no repurchases · diluted shares +22.2% since 2022
What this means
Stock handed to employees is a real cost paid in the owner's own currency: it is charged against profit, but the shares it creates are permanent. Many companies repurchase stock at the same time, which looks like a return of capital and often is not — if the count barely moves, the cash merely cancelled the pay packet and bought the owner nothing. The three states worth telling apart are a count genuinely shrinking, a count standing still despite large repurchases, and a count rising because the issuance was never offset at all.
Graham’s defensive tests · 2 of 3 met
Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.
- Adequate size NearRevenue ≥ $2B · $1.4B
What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
- Strong liquidity PassCurrent ratio ≥ 2× · 2.61×
What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
- Conservative debt PassDebt ≤ working capital · $0 vs $513M WC
What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
- Moderate price —P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price
What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $-1.49/share (latest year $-2.55), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $8.62/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.
Durability & moat, 2022–2025
Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.
- Profitable years 0 of 4
What this means
Lost money in 4 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
- Operating margin −7% → −6% (2-yr avg ends)
What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin held roughly steady — about −7% early, −6% lately, median −7%.
- Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital
What this means
The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.
- Worst year 2022 · −10.6% op. margin
What this means
Operations went underwater in 2022, understand why before trusting the good years.
- Share count +6.9%/yr
What this means
The share count is rising, dilution works against you on a per-share basis.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Current Position
as of the latest quarter, Jun 30, 2026Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.
- Cash & short-term investments$583M
- Receivables$191M
- Other current assets$72M
- Accounts payable$134M
- Other current liabilities$188M
From the company's latest filing.
Acquisitions & goodwill
from the balance sheet & the 4-year cash-flow recordGoodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.
$469M written down across 3 years (2023, 2024, 2025): goodwill the company has already conceded it overpaid for, charged against earnings. A write-down costs no cash (the cash went out when the deal was signed), but it is management marking its own past judgment to market.
Beside that spending sits $136M of cumulative amortization of acquired intangibles charged against earnings since fiscal 2022 — the purchase price of past deals, expensed over time. The cash figure above counts only cash consideration: goodwill of $337M against it says much of the buying was paid for in stock, which never passes through the cash-flow statement.
Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and amortization summed across the company's full tagged history, write-downs across the 4-year record, from the company's own filings.
Management, ownership & pay
read the proxy →From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid.
- Insider ownership5.6%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
- Stock-based compensation$42M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares in fiscal 2025, 3.0% of revenue. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.
What an owner would ask, FY2025
read the 10-K →- Which reported numbers are a judgment call?Management names Revenue recognition, Income taxes, Acquisitions as critical estimates
each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →
The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.
Peers, Publishing
The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each column names the period it is read over, and a median resting on fewer than three years carries that count beside it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each figure against.
| Company | Revenuelatest FY, USD | Gross marginmedian over the record | Op. marginmedian over the record | ROICmedian over the record | Owner earn. marginmedian over the record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSOPearson Plc | $4.9B | 51% | 11.0% | 8% | 8% |
| NYTNew York Times Company (The) | $2.8B | 53%4y | 10.7% | 15% | 10% |
| TDAYUSA TODAY Co. Inc. | $2.3B | 40% | 2.9% | -2% | 2% |
| MHMcGraw Hill Inc. | $2.1B | 80% | 13.2% | 7% | 12% |
| 9468Kadokawa | $1.8B | 35%4y | 5.0% | 8% | 3% |
| WLYJohn Wiley & Sons Inc. | $1.7B | 69% | 11.4% | 9% | 11% |
| SCHLScholastic Corporation | $1.6B | 54% | 1.2% | 1% | 3% |
| WBTNWEBTOON Entertainment Inc. | $1.4B | 24% | -6.0% | -8% | 0% |
| Group median | — | 52% | 7.9% | 8% | 6% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFType today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what WEBTOON Entertainment Inc. has delivered.
WEBTOON Entertainment Inc.’s latest year shows negative owner earnings, the mark of a build-out: total capital spending outruns the cash the business throws off today. So the tool opens on the steady-state base (maintenance capex in place of the build-out spend), the cash it would earn at rest; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.
Through the cycle, WEBTOON Entertainment Inc. earns about $4M on its 0.3% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 0.3% margin runs below that; the reported figure may understate a lean year. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year.
—
9.0% = the 4.65% 10-year Treasury (Aug 19, 2026) + 4.35 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.
Enter a price above to run it.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.
Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.65%, as of Aug 19, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.
Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.
Free cash flow ($4M) on 136M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-07-31; net cash $583M. The base opens on the steady-state figure (the latest year is negative on total capex mid-build-out); clear Steady-state to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. Capex ($10M) runs well above depreciation ($34M), so this is a build-out; Steady-state swaps total capex for maintenance (≈ depreciation), lifting the base to about ($2M), the cash it would throw off if it stopped expanding. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.
Manual order: ← WBS its page in the Manual WCC →
Industry order: ← TDAY the Publishing chapter WLY →